


AWOL

by HannaGoldworthy



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Marriage, And canon's bright idea was to make BOMBS with it?, And he goes through Obi-Wan Kenobi levels of hell in this fic, And the Muslim-coded Jedi Healer was the one USING those bombs?, Because there's very little canon content for them, Children's game used for physical therapy, F/M, For Days, He is Lissarkh's Padawan, I think the time period between meeting and confessing love will be like two months, I've likely gotten a lot wrong, Jinx is the missing Jacen Syndulla in this, Lightsaber combat used as physical therapy, Like intensely slow, Maggots used as medical instruments, Nanotech cloning is magic, Possession by ghosts, Savage is the perpetual third wheel, Slow Burn, So let me fix that, That was SO out of character for Barriss, There is a lot going on, They had this precision instrument which could alter a person on a cellular level, Vague description of medical procedures because I'm only a paraprofessional, Various Canon characters used as OCs, Will warn for them when necessary, and you can't stop me, because she's Plo Koon's protege and likes to adopt random kids, but that's like two years in Clone Wars time, i will be Obsessively Editing, no beta we die because Filoni won't let Maul do so, the brother Hera named her son after, there are a lot of repeated words, you know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:36:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 78,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28870938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HannaGoldworthy/pseuds/HannaGoldworthy
Summary: Barriss Offee could no longer say that she could be a good Jedi AND be a good doctor, good citizen, or a good person at the same time.  So, she left the Jedi.  But, she didn't take the time to tell anybody else why she was doing so.Which is all well and good, but things get more complicated when she is recruited by Savage Opress to heal his brother, Darth Maul.MUCH more complicated.
Relationships: Darth Maul/Barriss Offee, Gree/Luminara, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Previous Sidious/Mother Talzin, Savage Opress & Barriss Offee, Savage Opress & Darth Maul, anidala - Relationship
Comments: 243
Kudos: 99





	1. Chapter 1

Barriss Offee sat in a nondescript diner on a world whose name no one cared to remember, staring into her black coffee as she would a mirror.

Her first thought was that Barriss Coffee looked about as morally and physically exhausted as Barriss Offee.

Her second was that she’d been hanging out with Ahsoka too much.

With a sigh, the young Mirialan woman slumped forward onto her hands. She hadn’t slept in nearly thirty-seven standard hours. Perhaps that was why she had ordered the coffee, when she hated the taste of it with a passion. Perhaps that was why she had thrown out her Temple-issue communicator and decided to disappear from the life she had always known. Perhaps that was why she’d _failed_ her previous mission so _desperately_ …

A crash alerted her to a disturbance in the diner; she’d been too distracted to feel it in the Force. _Story of my life_ , she thought bitterly, rising to her feet to chase after the gigantic Zabrak running chaotically through the one street this re-fuelling station had to offer. She’d seen him go to the refresher fairly peacefully. _Perhaps the spice just took this long to kick in_.

Good _grief_ , her inner thoughts could be used as an astringent. Ahsoka really was rubbing off on her.

The Zabrak didn’t seem to be high, judging from what she could feel in the Force. Frantic, perhaps, but he wasn’t even under the influence of caffeine. He did, however, hijack a freighter and throw the pilot out the window. Barriss managed to catch the screaming pilot, set him on the ground, and Force-jump into the fleeing vehicle before the door could close.

Slowly, she crept toward the cockpit, masking her presence in the Force as much as she could. The Zabrak sat in the pilot’s seat, growling at a medallion which glimmered blue in the darkness. “Three days you’ve been dark,” the deep voice muttered. “And you finally act up when I sit down to take a…”

Reflexively, she cleared her throat; she’d spent _too much time_ around Ahsoka and her _vulgar_ little boy of a master, _too much time_ acting the lady around them, that the noise to censor an incoming profanity just popped out before her tired brain could think.

It earned her a crimson lightsaber pressed close to her throat, while the man she had been following snarled down at her from a formidable height. “ _WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?_ ”

Later, she would awake from a restless sleep sick to her stomach at how close she had come to death in this moment. But, in the present, she simply threw up her hands, looked into the reflective yellow-green irises of a Dathomiri Zabrak, and said, “Helping you? That is, if it’s all right?”

He rumbled dangerously, but seemed more confused than angry. “And what can _you_ do to help me?”

That was an _excellent_ question, particularly because she had no answer. “I…couldn’t help but notice your…height…?” she squeaked.

He gave her a dry look. “That _is_ the first thing many people seem to notice.”

Oh good, they were both in a sarcastic mood. This should go _swimmingly_. “Yes, but I’m a _physician_ ,” she said – and she was, in fact, having just got her Galactic Practioner license, so she did not need to introduce herself as ‘merely’ a healer anymore. “And your height might indicate some form of…glandular issue, which could be harmful to your brain in the future.”

He wasn’t impressed. “I’m throwing you out of an airlock.”

“No, no, please…let me explain!”

“There’s nothing to explain, you’re obviously lying to me.”

“I’m not! I’m just not telling the whole truth!”

He glared. She clapped both hands over her mouth and silently cursed the day she had ever met Ahsoka Tano.

Well, if she was about to die anyway, she might as well deserve it. “I’m a Jedi.” Before he could say anything else, she whimpered. “I mean…I _was_ a Jedi. I’m running away. And it seems like _you’re_ running away from something, and I thought I could…run with you?”

The man stared flatly into her eyes, and Barriss wished she could just sink into the metal floor beneath her feet.

“…When was the last time you _slept_ , little one?” That was…oddly nurturing in tone, considering he’d non-fatally strangled a waitress for no visible reason in the diner.

“Thirty-seven hours, twenty-two minutes, and fifty-four seconds.”

“That’d do it.”

“I suppose it would.”

He let go of her arm…foolishly, she couldn’t remember when he’d grabbed it. “I don’t know where the bunks are on this thing.”

Still terrified to near paralysis, Barriss looked behind him at the wall of the hallway behind the cockpit. The tall man followed her gaze, and tentatively pulled at a large drawer in the wall to reveal a small cot.

“Huh. Well, you’re welcome to sleep here…I don’t think I could ever fit into this comfortably. I’ll just sleep in the pilot’s chair.”

She nodded dumbly, but made no move to actually do as suggested. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.

“And…you said you were a Jedi? And a physician?”

“Yes?”

He took a deep breath, worrying his lip in a silent debate, before deciding to continue. “Have you ever heard of Darth Maul?”

She shook her head. “No…but should I have?”

***

Lotho Minor had not been anything much before it was turned into a trash planet, just a rock too close to its star to merit colonization and too poor in resources for any real mining operation. Still, when looking at it, Barriss felt it to be a terrible waste, throwing trash here and forgetting about it.

The fact that _people_ had been thrown here, not just Savage’s elusive brother, but other survivors, left to scrounge for food in the Republic’s garbage, just underscored in her mind how badly their society had been rotting for _years_. She almost wanted to help, but the scuttling beings she sensed in the mountains of refuse had all lost their minds long ago. They would strip the ship to its barest nuts and bolts if given the chance, which was part of the reason Savage had left her to defend it.

Her new ally had been gone for hours, but she felt a tickle at the back of her mind as he returned. The scavengers fled at the sound of the terrible screams coming from his direction, and Barriss felt her hand drop to her lightsaber when she saw Savage wrestling with a gigantic arachnoid creature.

“Open the cargo bay doors!” Savage roared, and Barriss flicked the switch with the Force even as she raced to his assistance. She drew near, and only then could she see in the perpetual dull light of the furnaces that the arachnoid creature was mostly composed of metal, fused to the upper body of an emaciated Dathomiri male, who fought against Savage with every breath.

Barriss had helped contain clones driven mad with stress disorders of every kind. This man was little different, frightened and mutilated as he was; when she approached, humming a soft crèche lullaby with a little Force persuasion behind it, his reaction was the same as any little boy grown on Kamino. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders, his yellow eyes shimmering intensely down into hers.

“It’s all right,” she murmured, backing toward the cargo bay. “You’re going to be all right,” he was nearly past the threshold, and Savage had raced around them to find the switch. “We’re going to get you out of here,” and then the doors closed behind them.

The cyborg shrieked in her face, and released her in order to clamber against the doors. One huge arm gripped her about her waist, and she was hauled bodily out of the cargo bay, the hallway portal closing just as their guest decided to throw his anger in her direction. His weight slammed against the metal door, and Barriss exhaled unsteadily, the rush of adrenaline making her tremble when two minutes before she had been perfectly steady.

“ _That_ is your brother,” she panted, swiveling to face Savage.

He nodded grimly. “What’s left of him,” he said with a glower. “He says a _Jedi_ is to blame.”

She swallowed. “I have no idea which of my former fellows could be so cruel as to leave him in this condition, but I assure you…”

“Save me your assurances. Do you think you can fix him?”

Barriss found her head bobbing like a particularly stupid species of prairie fowl. “I believe I can, given time and the right equipment and medications.”

Savage’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of equipment and medications?”

Her hands were trembling. “Well…he’s going to need a full course of antimicrobials, to start with, not to mention nutritional and hormonal supplements, probably intravenous since he’s lost most of the organs necessary for producing or processing such things the natural ways. And his wound…there is a developing technique amongst clone healers to regenerate lost tissue using nanotech. It was not considered cost-effective enough for the war effort, but it worked…”

Two massive hands descended upon her shoulders. “Barriss, I’m not going to hurt you.”

A shudder wracked her entire body. “Tell that to my hindbrain.”

“Okay…Barriss’s hindbrain, I’m not going to hurt you.”

She laughed tearfully, and brought her shaking hands up to cover her eyes. “Good _Force_ , what have I gotten myself into?”

“I told you it was complicated. But, for now, I just want to focus on helping my brother.” Savage pulled away from her, and removed the eerily blue medallion which had hung around his neck. “And I’m very grateful that I won’t have to return to Dathomir in order to do that.” With a little assistance from the Force, he crunched the medallion in half with his bare hand, and Barriss flinched.

“What’s on Dathomir?” she asked conversationally, trying to suppress her fear.

Savage shook his head. “ _Mother_ ,” he spat.

“You mean, Mother Talzin? I thought she died in the Confederacy attack?” That had occurred after Barriss went AWOL, but she’d heard the story broadcasted over various news channels.

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But Mother Talzin has her ways, and she has her _way_ with the men in her life. And I’d rather she not do to my brother what she has done to me.” He gritted his teeth…and then he seemed to remember how intimidating he must look in that moment. Gingerly he patted Barriss’s head, so gently he did not as much as crumple her veil. “It’s fortunate that you are here. Otherwise, I’d have had no other choice.”

She hugged herself, wishing silently that she had his confidence.

***

Considering they had no nanotech or antibiotics or even diagnostic equipment available to them, Barriss was going to have to do things the old-fashioned way. That meant she was somehow going to have to get her hands on the patient in order to heal him with the Force. And _that_ was only going to happen when he was asleep, because neither she nor Savage fancied getting gored against the cargo containers.

The problem was that Maul didn’t seem to require sleep. She and Savage had taken turns sleeping for two standard days, and throughout their shifts, Maul ranted and raved almost unceasingly.

At the start of the third day, Barriss had finally had enough. “Do you think you could hold him long enough for me to knock him out?”

Savage raised an eyebrow. “It’s worth a try.”

“Let’s do it then.”

The plan was simple; Savage went ahead of her to secure Maul’s attention on him, while she snuck around to put him to sleep while he was distracted. Naturally, their patient didn’t intend to make anything easy on them; when they opened the door, the steady stream of Sith nursery rhymes and indiscernible babble emitted from a small fortress of cargo boxes. One burning yellow eye studied them as they entered the cargo bay; even from a distance, Barriss could see that it twitched madly.

“ _No_.”

Savage squared his shoulders. “Yes.”

“ _nO._ ”

“Yes.” Barriss shifted behind him, creeping up onto the cargo boxes as silently as possible.

“ _NO._ ”

“This will only get harder if you continue to resist, Brother.”

“NoooOOOOoooaaaAAAARGH!” With blinding speed, the sick man charged from his hiding place toward his brother, and the two were once more locked in a grapple.

Barriss jumped, landing on the spider-cyborg thorax, trying to place her hands on either side of the patient’s head. The machinery bucked and swerved beneath her, but she managed to grab on to the horns on either of his temples and softly encourage him to sleep. He was stubborn, but it had been some time since he’d had to resist something like this; after a few moments thrashing, he slumped against Savage, slumbering fitfully.

They had to cut the spiderlike legs from him in order to fit him through the doors; Barriss got to do the honors with her lightsaber, and Savage carried him inside to the tiny medbay, as easily as he would have done with a baby.

The large Zabrak spared her a glance of mild concern as she moved to examine the thin, frail body on the medbay bed. “Witches on my world are dissuaded from trying to heal a wound like that with their magicks…can a Jedi do this without sacrificing their life?”

Barriss placed her left hand on Maul’s chest to check his vitals. “I’m not going after _that_ wound,” she said absently. “He’s going to need some care up here before I can even begin to rebuild.” Not to mention, she would have to get some necessary materials to manufacture the nanotech…perhaps even steal the nanotech, who knew? Not her. “First, I’m going to have to try and get his mind a little more stable, so he’ll let me work when he’s conscious.”

Savage nodded, squeezing himself into a chair on the other side of the bed.

Barriss took a few deep breaths, steeling herself against the mess she was undoubtedly going to encounter, placed her right hand on the sick man’s face, and began.

For psychological Force healing, she liked to envision a ball of yarn which she had to untangle. It didn’t do to go toward the middle of the yarn first; instead, it was best to start on the outside fringes and gradually work toward the center of the problem. So, she started with the hurts that had happened most recently. There were a lot of times Maul had been forced to eat filthy creatures he’d found in the trash…he’d even dismembered a few sapient beings. True to what she presumed was his form, there was no regret for having taken innocent lives in these scenes; instead, it hurt his pride that he was forced to live like a bottom-feeder. Barriss was in no place to start teaching him regret, so she simply combed through his dignity with a sense that being forced to do something ‘beneath him’ was far more dignified than _choosing_ to do something ‘beneath him.’

There were many other things to look through, as befitting ten years of a hardship she could scarcely imagine. He’d spent many cold and lonely nights huddled by the furnace he’d claimed as his own, vainly trying to comfort himself with fleeting memories of other lonely nights on a planet that was not nearly as cold; Barriss wanted to connect with some happier memories, but it didn’t seem like he had any. And the undercurrent of pain was not helping; he gripped onto that far more than a Jedi would have, and it almost seemed like he was fueled by the limitless pain he endured from day to day. When she started to get into the memories of carving out his dwelling in the trash, of manufacturing his prosthesis out of droid parts he’d found, of dragging his torn and weary body across a landscape of garbage to find shelter, Barriss started to hold out hope of getting to the crux of the problem. But then, he started to wake up again, and she had to pull herself out of his mind.

“It’s all right, brother,” Savage said, and she saw that he was holding Maul’s hand. “Go back to sleep. This should all be easier soon.” He hummed some odd, haunting tune, caressing the sick man’s horn with the back of one giant hand. When Maul relaxed again, Savage caught her eye and nodded to continue. He’d done this before, it seemed; at least she had a competent assistant.

The next memories were of a terrible fall, and an equally terrible landing; Barriss made a mental note to check that the bones of Maul’s right side had healed adequately after so loud a crunch. He hadn’t set them correctly, again seeming to thrive off the pain, and she feared she might have to re-break the bones in order to heal them. But that was a task for another day.

Right now, she was close to the crux of the problem. A fight in a power converter shaft, against two Jedi, one whom he dispatched beside the trash chute, the other who screamed in agony and went into full-on attack. The satisfaction he had claimed when he knocked the younger Jedi into the chute, and the frustration he had felt when the Jedi had grabbed a piece of metal to prevent his fall. The distraction of a flying lightsaber, followed by the shock and pain as the younger Jedi cut him in half. The _rage_ present in those blue eyes, which had stared into his for as long as it took Maul to fall.

“ _Kenobi_ ,” he growled, even in sleep, and Barriss was alarmed to find that she snarled the name in tandem with him. With a start, she backed away from the sick man.

“Are you all right?” Savage asked after a moment.

She covered her hands with her face, fitfully reexamining her own thoughts to sort out what anger was hers and what belonged to her patient. “I know what happened to him,” she replied. “He fell in a fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Master of the Council.” A Master whom she had never seen so angry, who had always been able to control his emotions, to the point where he had been entrusted with an older youngling to be his Padawan just after he was Knighted. Even mentioning the death of Master Jinn had never made Master Kenobi _angry_ , only sad.

_Obviously he’d already gotten his revenge,_ said something at the back of her mind.

Savage was studying her as she collected herself. “Are you _all right?_ ” he repeated.

Barriss exhaled shakily, and nodded. “I think that is enough for today, however. Is he sleeping?”

“Well enough.”

“Good.” Filing her fatigue away for the moment, Barriss busied herself with the standard-issue life support machines on this vessel. “We’ll have to get him hooked up for dialysis, then. It’s a wonder he didn’t bleed out years ago…”

***

For the first time in…years, it seemed…Maul awoke from a deep sleep, to find that he was not in the place he remembered.

It was a medbay, and his legs had been removed. A number of tubes were connected to his lower half instead, and machines hummed softly around him, helping to pump blood and eliminate waste. One machine beeped quietly with every movement of his heart.

And there was a… _large_ presence beside the bed, and an equally large hand rested on his shoulder after a moment.

“Sleep now, brother,” murmured the other man in the dark. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”

Too tired to argue, even in his head, Maul rested his head against the pillow again. He’d had many dreams of escaping the hell in which he lived. This one was by far the best, and felt the most real. He’d have to try and remember it when reality came crashing in again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Maul is a little shit, Barriss is sleep deprived enough to yell at him without getting scared until later, Savage has less idea of what's going on than everyone else even though this whole thing is basically his idea, and piracy's probably the thing that's easiest for everyone to deal with at this point.

She awoke after two hours’ sleep, tucked into the cozy darkness of the little drawer-cot. The drawer, when pulled shut, proved to have an alcove above it with a reading light, leaving more than enough space for her to sleep there comfortably without the lingering sense of claustrophobia she felt in most star destroyer bunks. The mattress was also much softer than any bunk in the GAR, which was nice. Now, if only she could stop her mind racing long enough to actually get some proper rest.

Upon dressing – really just brushing out her hair and putting her head covering back on, for she had no real change of clothing – Barriss stopped in the tiny medbay to check on the patient.

He was awake. Because _of course_ he was awake…why would an application of Force anesthesia strong enough to put a full-grown clone into a week-long coma keep him down for longer than an hour?

She’d call the look Maul gave her a glare if she had any evidence that he had alternative expressions. “Who are _you_?” he demanded imperiously; Savage, who had been filing his brother’s horns down to a manageable length, glanced quickly between the two of them in expectation of a fight.

The medics on Ord Cestus had taught her to treat the medbay as her personal domain. She had been a General who outranked most of the army in military matters, and a physician on top of that, who outranked the _entire_ army in medical matters. High General Mace Windu had _gladly_ followed _her_ orders in the event of a medical emergency. And this little _rat_ pulled from the _gutter_ dared to address her as an errant servant, as if he had any authority whatsoever to speak of?

In that moment, years of training snapped into place for tired Barriss Offee, completely eclipsing her personal tendency toward timidity.

“The doctor responsible for the fact that you’re able to string a complete sentence together instead of repeating the Sith Code two thousand times in an hour. You’re welcome.” She glanced up at Savage, who stared in abject horror at her. “I see you’ve taken the liberty of giving him a sponge bath. Thank you. That can’t have been pleasant.”

“Um…”

“Your _name_ , you insolent…”

“Name-calling isn’t going to change the fact that you are, in fact, indebted to me for putting your mind at least halfway to rights. If you want me to _stop_ healing you, then by all means, keep addressing me as you would the slime beneath your boot.”

Savage stared at the wall, avoiding eye-contact with both of them, and very obviously holding his breath.

Maul kept up the glare for another two seconds, before weariness claimed him again; he shut his eyes, lay back against the pillow, and breathed in quietly. “I…owe you my thanks,” he gritted out between his teeth.

“And I shall accept them, graciously.” She glided to his side, studying the heart monitor. It was, not surprisingly, quite strong for a Zabrak male on dialysis, especially one in Maul’s condition; there was some witchcraft about this that she had no intention of understanding, but she _could_ damn well account for it. “My name is Barriss Coffee… _Offee_. Barriss _Offee_.”

“My brother tells me you are _Jedi Knight_ Barriss… _Offee_.”

She smiled pleasantly. “ _Formerly_ Jedi Knight, but I now simply go as _Doctor_. And you? Shall I address you as _Darth_ Maul?”

Ah, his glare was back on again, in full force. “You can address me as _Lord_ Maul, or simply _Lord_.”

“Well, your Grace,” she _knew_ how to address lords, thank you, “how are you feeling today?”

“Not well.”

“That’s to be expected,” she said, retrieving a pen light from a drawer and flicking it into both poisonous eyes to check his pupils. “We worked on your brain last; are there any new thoughts of suicide, visual or auditory hallucinations, pain that is more intense than usual, nausea, vomiting…?”

He rolled his eyes. “No, but there are plenty of thoughts of vengeance, against a _Jedi_. Perhaps you’ve heard of…”

“Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, youngest member of the High Jedi Council, High General of the Third Systems Army, and mentor to a young Knight thought by some to be the Chosen One?”

He blinked. “You were in my mind.”

“You were _chewing_ on the cargo bay _doors_. _Yes_ , I was in your mind.” She set the pen light aside, held up her hands, and gestured to his temples. He nodded, and she gently began to palpate his skull with both her fingers and the Force, searching for signs of injury. “Unfortunately, Kenobi is likely halfway across the galaxy at this current moment, and you are in no condition to fight him no matter where you are. There are hairline fractures all across your skull, and likely in every bone of your body. Fighting him or anyone else at this current moment would only increase the pain you have to live with every day.”

“I’m not afraid of pain.”

“Of course you’re not, but the simple fact is that Kenobi is in his prime, whereas you have the skeleton of a geriatric, non-medicated human of non-Zabrak origin. He’d snap you like a toothpick. And that’s not something I can fix until we can get around to stealing some proper medical supplies for you from the Republic.”

For the first time, Maul’s expression softened by just the barest bit. “You’re not going to try to dissuade me from my revenge?”

“No, only get you to postpone it until you might live long enough to savor it afterwards.” She was flying by the seat of her pants here. For once, being Ahsoka Tano’s best friend was paying dividends.

Maul studied her for a long moment. “Very well… _Doctor_. Where do you plan on getting the supplies?”

“Ord Cestus Medstation.”

“How far away is that?”

She glanced at her watch. “About a day’s journey on our current heading.”

He considered her, and nodded regally toward the door. “Thank you, Doctor.”

If he thought he could dismiss her from _her_ medbay, he had another thing coming. “Lord Savage,” she said quickly, “would you check the autopilot? It is purrgil mating season; sometimes they can offset the hyperdrive.”

Savage looked to Maul, who nodded curtly. When he was out of the room, Barriss leaned in as close as she dared; Maul looked like he had a penchant for biting noses even when he was in possession of his faculties. “Exactly how many medical degrees do you have, your Grace?”

He glowered petulantly. “None.”

“Precisely. So, I do not care whether you were the Ruler of the Galaxy or Lord of the Trash, in this medbay _I am in charge_. You do _not_ order me around, and you do _not_ order Savage around in front of me, because you haven’t even the slightest idea where to start in healing yourself without running crying home to Mommy to be brainwashed again.”

“I ought to break your disrespectful neck.”

“And when I am no longer useful to you, you’re perfectly welcome to do so. Until then, you will _cheerfully_ delegate to my superior training in this field. Is that understood?”

He growled weakly. “Perfectly.”

“Good. Now. I am going to get some breakfast for myself. Do try to thank your brother for bathing you, please; this whole operation was his idea.”

She walked out of the medbay with her head high, made it to the refectory, and backed up against a wall, holding her arms tightly to her chest in order to suppress the sound of her sudden weeping. She’d just gotten mouthy with a _Sith Lord_. Her days were numbered. _What was she thinking?_

***

Savage crept back into the medbay, wincing at the quiet sobs that came from the refectory. “Brother.”

Maul tilted his head at him. “Did you see _that_ , my apprentice?”

He cringed. “I’m sorry, Master…”

“Don’t apologize for things for which you are not responsible, for one thing. And Savage. Did you _see that_?”

“…No?”

“Well you are going to have to watch more closely, because _that_ is precisely the sort of spine I’m going to require you to grow.” His younger brother flopped back against the cushions Savage had managed to find for him. “ _Oh_ , if only her training were not complete…the _things_ I could accomplish…”

He continued in this vein for a few more minutes, and Savage elected to leave him to it quietly. He never thought he’d miss Dathomir, but the greater galaxy was a strange and befuddling place at times.

***

They arrived at Ord Cestus Medstation in record time, just when Barriss had been expecting; they stalled the ship in a spot where she knew the sensors were never replaced because of the Banking Clan’s machinations. Savage looked dubiously at the gigantic installation and then back at Barriss.

“You’re really going to try to steal supplies from _there_?”

“I’ve stolen supplies from here before without much fuss,” she replied.

He bent over the console in order to get to her eye level. “ _Please_ tell me you’re working up some bravado, or joking.”

She allowed herself one subtle roll of her eyes. “I wish I could. But the Banking Clan was finding inroads into our supplies even when I worked there; I made more than a few fraudulent transfers to prevent our medicine from enriching the Banking Clan’s coffers on Muunilist’s black market.” She took a deep breath, studying the comings and goings of the station. “In truth, we don’t need to assault the station itself. We just need to find a suitable vessel to follow and pirate.”

A small freighter lifted off from the Medstation’s loading dock. Barriss nodded toward it. “Your eyes are keener than mine. Does it have the Banking Clan Insignia painted upon it?”

  
“…Yes.”

“Excellent. I’m cloning their hyperspace heading. Get ready to board.”

***

The vessel had been crewed entirely by droids, much to Barriss’s disgust. “It’s like the Banking Clan aren’t even trying anymore.”

“Or, they’ve deliberately engineered the shipments to be vulnerable to the Separatists. Dooku likes that the corporations play both ends of the game.” Savage dispatched the final remaining droid pieces out of the airlock then hurried over to help her with the unloading. “You think this will be enough?”

Barriss finished skimming the manifest, nodding absently. “Enough for a good while, at least…here.”

With one coordinated shove of the Force, they got the last box into their cargo bay. “Now we just need a good place to lay low,” Savage said as they jumped back into the ship themselves.

“Do you have any ideas?”

“Not really. You?”

“The entire galaxy seems to be at war…Maul, what the _hell_ are you _doing?_ ”

Somehow, the self-styled Sith Lord had managed to load himself and all his necessary equipment onto the vessel’s single gurney. He seemed fairly pleased with himself too, looking up from the computer where he had wheeled himself.

“Florrum is out of the way.”

“That’s pirate territory, Brother.”

“ _One tube out of place and you could have bled to death in_ seconds _._ ”

Maul smiled. “It’s good to make new friends, Brother.”

“Not with pirates…”

“Aren’t we pirates now?”

The only thing that was saving Maul from getting beat to death with the scattered remains of his own prosthesis was the fact that Barriss had sworn an oath before her gods never to willfully kill a patient. And her gods could be _very_ forgiving of crimes committed if the person who committed them was sufficiently repentant. “GET. Your RUDDY SHEBS. BACK in the medbay. THIS. INSTANT.”

“ _Shebs_ is the Mando’a word for ass, right? I don’t currently have one of those.”

“YOU _ARE_ THE ASS!” She had to fight from violently seizing the gurney, because she had not been joking about how fragile the equipment was. Her hands were shaking again, but not, this time, of fear.

As she pushed Maul away from the computer and back toward the medbay, the _idiot_ grinned manically over her shoulder at his brother. “Florrum, Savage, Florrum! It’s nice this time of year!”

“YOU MAY NOT LIVE TO SEE IT!”

He rubbed his hands together with glee. “Good, _good_ , I can _feel_ your _hate_...”

She smacked him on the forehead with her lightsaber hilt, _hard_. “Damn _straight_ you can feel my hate. You utter and complete moron, don’t you realize what the two of us have had to put up with…”

***

Savage stared after the two lunatics with whom he currently shared a crappy two-ton shoebox freighter in the void of space, and wondered, for neither the first nor the last time, if Feral could have been better able to cope with this bullshit.

***

This Doctor Barriss Offee was unnecessarily rough when she intubated him for several different antibiotics, painkillers, and intravenous nutrition. Maul _loved_ it…just out of enforced early retirement, and he already had two excellent candidates for apprentices to play off each other. If only they didn’t get along so well! Ah, but there was time to make them hate each other when he was back on some semblance of his feet…

“Quit your plotting. The testosterone is going in your right arm.”

“How do you know my preferred hormone is testosterone?”

She scantly avoided rolling her eyes at him by an eyelash. “Your _Grace_ , you are, in fact, a Zabrak. Even female Zabrak produce enough testosterone to _kill_ a typical specimen of any other humanoid. And the fact that you do _not_ , currently, _produce_ testosterone by yourself means that you have the most advanced case of osteoporosis I have ever seen in my admittedly short career.”

Ooh, but she was so _entertaining_ when he teased her like this! “What if I want estrogen?”

“Then the packet needs a separate hole from the testosterone, and _you. Will. Like. It._ ”

He bit back a grin. “Just the testosterone is fine, then.”

She _jammed_ the needle in his arm, taped it down correctly despite the obvious temptation to make it too tight, and glided out of the medbay with practiced ease. In minutes she was back, carefully carrying a small tub of gel and a handheld computer. She sat opposite his bed, scanned the gel through its plastic container, and began fervently typing data into the little keyboard.

Maul’s eyelids were beginning to sag from the effects of the painkillers, but he was determined to be awake as long as possible. He was _well_ aware that the only reason he’d survived was from a continuous act of hateful will; sleep was for those who did not have the Dark Side. So he fought the painkillers by occupying his mind in every way possible.

Barriss _Offee_ seemed to have the same idea, with whatever she was doing. There were dark circles under her large blue eyes, and she constantly wore the haggard expression of one who does not sleep well. He had no idea what could haunt one such as her in her sleep, but if _she_ was distracted, _he_ could be distracted.

“What is that?” he asked, politely this time.

She pinched the bridge of her nose hard enough to whiten her knuckles, blinked, and continued to study the little handheld screen. “I’m studying the specifications for the nano-droids we managed to acquire. There’s no need to calibrate them just yet, but it pays to be prepared.”

“Are they the appropriate type of droids?”

“They’ll do,” she said briefly. Then her eyelids fluttered shut, and she jerked herself back into wakefulness, speaking to cover the lapse in her willpower. “I designed them myself.”

That… _that_ explained a _great_ deal. “Are you angry that you found your creation on the black market?”

She shot him a Look. “You’re benefitting quite nicely from the fact that I did, aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “But it’s not _about_ me, is it?”

“There are many things that are not about you, your Grace.”

“Which of them made you throw your lot in with my brother?”

“Fickle chance and sleep deprivation.”

He shook his head and lay back against the pillows to rest his eyes. “I’ll find what motivates you, Doctor. One way or…”

He didn’t remember falling asleep. But he did wake a few hours later to find the bed linen turned up to cover him to his chin. He noted the change briefly, shifting slightly under the blanket, before drifting off again…it had been so long since he’d actually been able to enjoy a good sleep…


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone is Bored, until they are Not, because a FREAKING WITCH GHOST IS SUDDENLY THERE AND NOT WELCOME. On-the-fly exorcisms are had, and so are convenient backstory nightmares.

As the purrgil flew, the hyperspace jump between Ord Cestus and Florrum would have taken about a day and a half. Given that they had to cover their tracks in order to prevent deeper inquiry into their piracy of the Medstation, the crew of the nameless stolen freighter decided to take a more roundabout route which would take about a week, including stopovers to refuel.

That left plenty of idle time in the disconcerting quiet of hyperspace for a number of things. One could stare into the star-streaked darkness outside and contemplate the ever-thinning barrier between time and space…or one could look at the strangers with which one was currently living, and try to get to know them.

Not one of the weary travelers liked either of those options. So instead, they spent the hours not needed for guiding the ship treating Maul’s health like their favorite holoprogram – and yes, this included Maul himself. The red Zabrak peppered Barriss with questions with every examination, some elegantly phrased with the honest interest of a student learning a new subject, and some mean-spirited and deliberately stupid, testing her patience and heckling her sensibilities. She hadn’t given in as of yet – in fact, she sometimes found him inexplicably funny – and that only seemed to intrigue him more.

Savage, for his part, never questioned anything; she got the sense that he had wandered this way for a while, always doing something for someone else, never really forming his own opinions out loud. However, he observed everything, and she had a feeling that Maul asked some of his more sincere questions for Savage’s benefit; for all that they seemed to have been separated at birth, the two had a subtle brotherly bond. It was the healthiest mindset either man had going for him, and so she quietly encouraged it – Force knew that they could both benefit from some stealthy group therapy.

Today, four standard days from their destination, she was finally taking a close look at the bones of Maul’s right arm and shoulder. It was hands-on, but as long as she warned the patient of where she was going to touch him, he didn’t seem to mind. “Your hands are cool,” he muttered at the start.

“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling back immediately and rubbing her hands together to warm them. “Mirialan biology, I’m afraid…let me know if it gets uncomfortable.” She started gently palpating along his collarbone, which she had seen in his memory had received some of the most force after his fall down the Nubian garbage chute. Six centimeters later, she clucked her tongue. “It’s as I thought. The bone snapped in two here,” she said, lightly rubbing the indicated spot for emphasis.

“Can you fix it?”

She fought back a wince, instead looking Maul quite frankly in the eyes. “Even without most of the nutrients necessary for healing bone correctly, it’s been a dozen years. In order to heal it, I’d have to break it again. And if we aren’t supplying what the bone needs to heal right, I’d only make it worse by doing so.” She continued on down his collarbone, her jaw setting as she surveyed the increasing damage as she neared the joint of his shoulder. “The good news is that your skeletal tissue seems to be responding well to the treatment. It won’t be too much of a shock to your system to start the nano-droid cloning once we land on Florrum.”

“And the bad news?”

She sighed. “There are a great many breaks I’m going to have to make. And in order to ensure that I heal you correctly, you’re going to have to be conscious and able to feel the pain.”

Savage sighed, obviously recalling just how much resistance Maul could put up when threatened. Maul, however, smirked at her. “I am a _Sith Lord_ , Doctor. I can take a little pain.”

She didn’t say that _that_ was what she was afraid of. She’d had to do procedures like this in the past, where she inflicted some amount of pain upon a patient, supposedly for a greater good in the end. It was…Sith-like, really. She could not deny the results of such treatment, but she did not care to espouse the end-justifies-means philosophy behind it, nor did she like how hardened her heart had become to a patient’s pain tolerance. And if she did it to Maul…well. She was afraid she might grow to _like_ the idea of having a Sith Lord at her mercy…and from there it was a slippery slope to enjoying inflicting discomfort and pain upon _anyone…_

She’d become a Force healer, and then a doctor, to follow the Jedi ideal of assuaging pain. But it seemed with every turn she made that she was being dragged away from that ideal; even desertion had ultimately offered no solace.

And Maul, damn him, seemed to be catching on to the drift of her thoughts.

“Savage, can you assist me in helping him sit up? I need to look at his shoulder blade.”

The larger male moved swiftly to comply, placing one great arm under his brother’s back to lift him. Barriss was about to begin palpating down the scapula from the _mess_ that was Maul’s ball-and-socket joint, but as he sat up, Maul suddenly began to cough. “Help me get his arms over his head,” she instructed Savage.

“ _No_!” Maul spluttered, sounding almost feral yet again, shaking his head to dislodge whatever was catching in his throat.

**_Easy, my son. Let it happen, don’t resist._ **

Barriss could feel the two-toned voice more in the pit of her gut than she could hear it with her ears. Savage’s reaction was visceral; he released Maul, and cowered in the corner of the medbay as Maul suddenly disgorged a large cloud of eerie green gas, which billowed into the air above their heads, coalescing into the vague form of a Dathomirian woman. Left without Savage to balance Maul’s body, Barriss was forced to throw her arms about his shoulders to prevent him from falling back against the wall and injuring himself; he cringed into the embrace of her arms, his tattered pride momentarily forgotten. She alone stared up at the ghastly figure which examined them both appraisingly.

“…Mother,” Savage whimpered.

The ghost shrugged dismissively in his direction for a moment. **_You have betrayed my trust, Savage. Did I not instruct you to bring your brother back to me?_**

“Mother…I…I…”

**_And what is_ ** **this _wretched creature that you deemed worthy of replacing me?_**

There had been numerous stories in the Jedi Archives that Barriss had read when she was young, of various folkloric creatures beyond the pale. Generally, when up against such things, the best advice was not to let the monster know one’s real name. “I am his _doctor_ ,” she said preemptively, before the dark spirit could wheedle any more information out of her alleged children. “And you are not welcome here.”

There came a nightmarish laugh, and the lights in the medbay flickered ominously. **_You_ dare _order_ me _?_**

Without taking her eyes off of their unexpected visitor, Barriss slowly let Maul sink back onto his cushions. Unthinkingly, he grabbed at her as a child would grip its favorite stuffed toy in the dark, but she had to put him down. “No, you _dare_ order _me_?” she replied. “ _This_ is _my_ medbay, unclean spirit! And you are _not welcome here!_ ”

The face in the cloud scowled, and sparks of green electricity danced angrily throughout the room. **_Foolish child! You have no right to command the spirit of Dathomir itself!_**

“This is not Dathomir, _Witch_!” Barriss spat. “This ship, this medbay, and _everything in them_ , are _mine! MINE, not yours!_ ” With nary a tremor, she brought her hand up to _push_ at the unnatural thing with all the power she could summon. “ _And I have every right to command you to LEAVE!_ ”

There was a terrible groan throughout the ship as she combatted the spirit, and the lights began to switch on and off as the two glared at each other. But, for the first time, the eyes of the woman in the cloud faltered in their greedy confidence. **_No._**

****

“ _In the name of Palurin, I bind you, and throw you back into the Darkness from whence you came_.”

**NO.**

“ _In the name of Palurin, I bind you, and throw you back into the Darkness from whence you came!_ ”

**NO!**

“ _In the name of Palurin, I BIND YOU! I throw you BACK into the Darkness from WHENCE YOU CAME!_ ”

It was as if she suddenly wakened from a terrible dream. One moment, she stared into the face of the Darkness itself; the next, the lights stabilized, and it was as if no strange or paranormal thing had ever happened.

Barriss glanced back at Maul, who gaped at her; his monitors were screaming data about his hearts beating too fast, about his bowels releasing more waste than usual, of the blood cascading through the dialysis tubes at sickening rate, but it seemed to be no more than a really good scare. Good; the ghost had not undone his progress by possessing his already overtaxed body.

Savage still trembled like a terrified child in the corner, but he, too, looked up at her in some sort of frightened awe. Barriss licked her dry lips, and made sure he met her eyes. “Mother?” she asked.

“Mother,” he nodded.

She moved toward him…the poor man seemed to have suffered more of a panic than she did…but suddenly, the world was upside down, and the sterile light of the medbay was all-consuming…and a trillion colorful lights burst throughout her vision…

***

From both of their vantages in the medbay, Maul and Savage lunged as Barriss’s knees buckled beneath her. She collapsed fairly quickly, but Maul was able to pull her with the Force toward the mattress so that her head did not hit anything hard. Savage prevented her from sliding down the bed’s legs, lifting her so that she lay curled like a cat at the foot of the medbay cot.

The crisis momentarily averted, both brothers heaved in air as if they were trying to recover from drowning, the eye contact between them the only communication they could manage for several tense seconds.

After that moment of silence, Savage began to chuckle hysterically. “She…she confronted _Mother_. And _won!_ ”

Maul shifted on his elbows, grimacing; without his legs as a counterbalance, there was really no way for him to sit up comfortably, but he refused to lay back with circumstances as they were. “How the _hell_ did she find us out here?”

Savage shakily took a seat on the floor; if he decided to follow Barriss’s example and faint, he didn’t want to crush her or potentially dislodge any of his brother’s life support. “Dathomiri Blood Trail. The Nightbrothers use it to hunt; sprinkle a rancor with your blood, and you can follow it anywhere. Only, she is related to both of us by blood…”

“ _And_ Force sensitive, which means she can follow us wherever she bloody well wants.”

“No pun intended.”

Maul nearly went cross-eyed with frustration. “ _What_ about this situation is so _funny_ to you?”

Savage shuddered. “None of it…but if I do not laugh, Brother, I’m sure I shall cry.”

“Right…mustn’t cry.”

They stayed in their positions for several quiet moments, listening as the monitors began to settle. “I have to go check the heading,” Savage said.

“Then go.”

“…She claimed the entire ship, right brother?” The larger Zabrak seemed to have regressed to an infant in his fear, and for whatever reason, Maul could not begrudge him of it.

“Yes, she did. Check the heading, and hurry back. You needn’t fear Mother returning.”

Savage slowly got to his feet, and moved as quickly toward navigation as he possibly could. As he did so, Barriss stirred, one blue eye fluttering open.

Maul met her gaze, and huffed in a superior manner. “And to think you were afraid of hurting me,” he sneered with no real malice.

Barriss blinked, and then her eye closed again, and her breathing began to stabilize into that of sleep.

***

_She was cold._

_Mirial was a desolate world, comprised of tundra with only a few rainforest archipelagoes in the tropic regions. Mirialans had evolved to withstand the cold, and the want and desperation that came with the cold. The Jedi often journeyed to the world on pilgrimage, to learn the culture’s efficiency, minimalism, and generosity in the face of adversity._

_But Mirial could not compare to this cold that infused her bones, this_ evil _that possessed her brain._

_She stalked through the hallways, seeking the little huntress who had avoided her. The girl’s species had evolved as ambush predators; she would hide, and try and guide her prey into a trap. But Mirialans were persistence predators at their peak; the girl would tire and falter long before her own perseverance waned._

_The part of her that was still Barriss Offee shrieked helplessly against the relentless march of the murderer which now controlled her body. This was not what she wanted. She was_ not this thing _. But the worm controlled her jaw, and she could not expel it from where it coiled in her skull._

_The huntress had set her trap, but her youthful self-assurance was severely shaken. She would die. Barriss had studied the blade for much longer than she had, and her medical training could be used to rip her to shreds. She would die._

_And Barriss would rather die herself…but she had_ no choice…

“Barriss,” _Ahsoka said, but the voice that came out of her mouth was too low, not hers._ “Barriss, you are dreaming. Wake up.”

She jumped into wakefulness, and found her gaze confronted with the sulfuric eyes of a nightmare. She shrieked wordlessly, and backed away, only to find herself falling into open space. Her hand snagged on something not necessarily sharp, but the force of her fall gave her a cut anyway; Barriss hit the ground, and scuttled away, cradling the wounded hand to her chest.

“Barriss,” said a deeper voice, and she whimpered and covered her head with her arms. Giant claws grabbed her wrists gently, but implacably, pulling them away from her face no matter how hard she fought.

“ _Barriss’s hindbrain_ ,” the voice said again. “We are _not_ going to hurt you!”

Somehow, that phrase struck a chord in her fretful mind. She lifted her chin, finding her gaze mirrored against her by reflective green-gold eyes.

“…I’m cold,” she said. Savage nodded, taking his hands from her wrists and gesturing with both arms that he intended to pick her up. She nodded her consent, and found herself swept up as if she was still an infant, and placed on the foot of the medbay bed.

Maul had, somehow, managed to bully his cushions into supporting his weight. He sat nearly upright, a stitching kit in his hands, and met her gaze.

“You’re going to have to walk me through how to do this, Doctor. It’s been a while since I’ve stitched a wound.”

She blinked. “I can do it…”

“You can barely think. And it’s your dominant hand. Don’t argue.”

“Okay,” she said, outstretching the hand.

Maul proved that he took direction well when he wanted to do so…if she had been in any other frame of mind, that realization would have made her screech in exasperation. Right now, she could only seem to process one thing at a time; Savage tucked the warmest blanket he could find around her, and she only noticed ten seconds after the fact.

“That is your mother?” she said a few moments later, once Maul proved he wasn’t going to maim her hand.

He ground his teeth, and Savage shifted in the place he had taken on the floor. “Yes.”

“She can… _do that_ to you? Just…take over your body, without your consent?”

Savage rumbled his assent from the floor, and Maul closed his eyes briefly.

There were tears welling in Barriss’s eyes, and she fought to keep them from spilling over onto her face. “I know that feeling,” she whispered. “It’s horrible. I hope I didn’t make things worse.”

Maul cut the thread for the last stitch with decisive aplomb. “You did exactly the right thing. You fought. And you won.”

Savage poked his head over the edge of the bed, and Barriss almost laughed to see that he had draped a blanket over his horns. “Who took over _your_ mind, little one?” he growled banefully, and the homicidal gleam in his eye was offset by the playful cartoon tookas depicted on the blanket. “And how long have they been dead?”

“…Geonosian brain worms,” she replied, trying not to devolve into hysterics. “And they have been dead for nearly a year.”

“Pity.”

Maul shook his head, applying antiseptic to his handiwork; he’d already sterilized the wound before working, but he was nothing if not thorough. “What battle was fought on Geonosis?” he asked, taking the packaging off of a bandage.

“Two, actually…and I fought in both of them…”

“Not bad.”

“Not bad at all.”

“Explains a lot.”

“Indeed.”

She looked between the two Zabraks – one Sith, one Nightbrother, both born to the Dark Side, and both ardently trying to dispel the dark around her. They continued to talk, about everything and nothing, while Barriss slowly succumbed to the exhaustion that had contributed to her fainting fit in the first place. She drifted off at the foot of the bed, feeling warmer than she had since she’d run away. The rest of her worries could wait until morning.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cool-down episode, in which Barriss finally showers, she and Savage have a talk, and Maul picks a fight. Be warned; I managed to fit a little backstory and worldbuilding into all of that.

A few hours after the Incident, Barriss managed to wake up gently for the first time in a while.

She’d fallen asleep at the foot of a Sith Lord’s sickbed.

Well. At least he wasn’t currently using that part of it.

She glanced over the monitors. Maul’s vitals were normal. None of his medication bags were dangerously low. He himself seemed to be sleeping quite peacefully, as did his brother, curled up on the floor. At least Savage had a few pillows; Maul could be persuaded to be generous in his case.

Barriss decided she could get away with a quick shower, and slipped silently out of the medbay, leaving the brothers to whatever soothed dark-siders in their dreams.

Her nickname amongst certain personalities in the GAR had been the Ice Queen; she never let on that she had learned the name, but even she could agree it was well-earned. Her generally aloof personality aside, what seemed hot to her was usually considered lukewarm by the clones; what seemed lukewarm to her was ‘flipping frigid, Commander, how can you karking stand it’ to one Lieutenant Vomer, who saluted her solemnly every time she chose to go to the end of the line for showers. A cold bath – her kind of cold, not anybody else’s – was to die for after a long day, leeching all of the tensions out of her overworked tendons. Everyone could (and did) tease her for it, but in the end it was easier to obtain cold water than hot, and she was more completely relaxed than the poor fellow who had the warm water run out mid-oblations.

The same principle applied double here; the old and noisy heater could only do so much. So, she had every reason to justify turning the temperature indicator low enough that the water didn’t even produce steam. Now she just needed an excuse for dissociating for thirty minutes.

“I’m a doctor, dammit, not an exorcist,” she muttered to herself, and yep. There was the excuse. The doctor was decidedly out, and she needed her kriffing cryotherapy…not to mention a really good cry.

When she finally turned off the water, she wrapped herself in a towel and checked her face in the cracked mirror…usually cold baths kept her face from getting puffy when she cried, but it paid to be certain. She’d already shown enough weakness in front of her…unorthodox clientele. Though, to be fair, they had not taken advantage of it, if the stitches that pulled slightly as she flexed her right hand said anything about their motivations.

Yet, she reminded herself. They haven’t taken advantage of it yet. At the very least Maul would try.

She heaved a sigh, trying to avoid getting dressed as long as she could…it had been ages since she’d changed clothes, and though she could make do with the few hygiene products they’d stolen from the Medstation, the robes were starting to grow just a little bit musty. She looked back in the mirror, intending to tie her hair back, but stopped short.

A small green-black diamond had appeared on her skin, on her sternum, just above where she’d draped her towel. That had not been there before. She pulled the towel down a bit, trying to see if any more had clustered there, but no, it seemed to be solitary, at least for now. Where had it come from?

Mirialans liked to cultivate the idea that the marks on their skin were tattoos. Indeed, many such marks were tattoos; the marks only appeared naturally after an individual had made some significant accomplishment, in a process long connected with Mirialan mysticism and the Living Force, but many Mirialans hoped to appear more accomplished in order to progress quickly in their highly regimented society. All of the marks on Barriss’s skin, however, had been obtained the old-fashioned way: on her hands to indicate her prowess as a healer and a warrior, on her thighs and knees (covered as they usually were) for her love of traditional dance, and scattered about on her nose to accentuate her eyes and thus her dedication to scholarly pursuit.

And now, the mark on her breast bone whose meaning was completely unknown to her.

This little adventure was causing all sorts of surprises, now wasn’t it?

***

When she left the shower, her ears detected some form of odd, vibrating noise. Her first instinct was that something was probably loose in the refectory; the plastoid tumblers in the cupboards tended to make some sort of noise whenever the engine did the slightest thing differently.

Savage was already sitting at the table when she arrived, nursing a large glass of water, and at her perplexed frown he lifted a finger to his lips. “It’s Maul,” he murmured. “He doesn’t know that I know he purrs.”

“So that’s what it is.” She’d healed Zabrak of many different sub-species, and they did sometimes purr as she did so; it was a self-soothing tactic, and it often helped them recover faster. “Does he know it’s not just an expression of affection?” she asked, moving closer so as to avoid raising her voice.

“Oh, trust me, he knows that much,” Savage sighed. “It’s the same old story that I grew up with…don’t show vulnerability in front of the Sisters. Only, he doesn’t even trust me with it, so I imagine he just hides it from everybody.” He had a lot to unpack beneath that simple statement, and he wasn’t even trying to hide it, which meant he wanted to share, but also needed to cautiously size her up in case she didn’t want to listen.

“Perhaps we can just leave him to it,” she said, settling into the chair across from Savage. “Let him heal a little bit more and maintain his dignity. Some like to be tough.”

“And some never learned the time to be soft,” Savage said. “Or who to be soft with.”

“Where did you learn such things?” she asked.

He considered her, and she thought that perhaps she had overstepped; sometimes people wanted to share before they could, and that was perfectly all right. But, after a moment, Savage came to a silent decision, and continued.

“My brother…our brother Feral.” He twitched his lips in a brief, sad smile. “He was very close to Maul’s age; they could be twins, though I’m not sure.”

His usage of the past tense and depressed demeanor indicated that Feral was probably dead; another small tragedy in the horrible galaxy with which they had been gifted. Barriss did not press on the wound, which was evidently still quite raw; instead, she hoped to pivot Savage away from dwelling on his sadness. “You sound like you were very close. What was he like, growing up?”

Savage smiled. “Smart. Quiet. Kind to a fault, and, very…conventionally attractive for our species’ standards. I grew up literally beating Sisters off of him with a stick.”

“And what is conventionally attractive, if it’s not too rude to ask?”

“In so many words…not me.” Savage grinned proudly. “I’ve got bright yellow skin and dark markings. I stood out like a sore thumb on Dathomir, which is orange in the daytime, red at night. And I had very sharp features even before I started beating the crap out of anyone who looked at Feral twice; Nightsisters like their men soft. Compliant, too; I’m stubborn. So was Feral, for that matter, though he showed it differently.” He laughed, perhaps a little bitterly. “It’s probably a good thing Maul wasn’t raised with us. Looks like his would have gotten him Chosen, bred, and killed by the age of fifteen. It was a fight to keep just Feral alive.”

“Is that why he was raised off-world? To protect him?”

“Well…that’s where it gets complicated.” Savage swirled the liquid in his cup. “I only know bits and pieces of the truth, likely because my uncle Viscus never knew the whole story. He and a Nightsister named Kycina were born as twins, and he was reared with her for a few years before he was left in the Nightbrother village. And, when they grew up, she was awarded the Honor Name of Talzin, ascended to the rank of Mother, and left two sons with her brother…but, she never took any mates from our town.”

He shared that fact very quietly, and Barriss got the meaning that this had been a popular topic of gossip. “So, your father, or fathers, came from outside?”

Savage took a long sip of his drink. “My gut feeling says we are all full siblings, which is controversial enough for our tribe. And, I also think that our father came from off-world, and that after some dispute with Mother, he took Maul, and left her with Feral and me.”

“…Count Dooku? He had previous ties with the Nightsisters, if I remember correctly…”

“It’s not Dooku,” Savage grunted. “I’d have known from the first moment I saw him.”

“Are you as certain that it was your father who took Maul from Dathomir, and not just some other kidnapper?”

He looked at her for a long moment, obviously trying to decide what and what not to share. “He…would not have been able to steal Maul if he hadn’t had some sort of blood claim to him. My mother was able to find us due to her own blood claim, and the fact that our father was not here to counter with his own. That he was able to hide Maul from her for as long as he did…well, there were stories of fathers who ran with their children and hid them from their mothers’ Blood Trails, back when our tribe was just starting out. It’s one of the few ways out of the tribe that we’ve ever recorded, and it’s why fathers are typically not outsiders, and killed right after conception is confirmed.”

That was…actually quite a lot to think about, now that she thought about it. Putting it in context with what little she knew of the secret conflicts between the lords of the Bane line of Sith made a few things clear, but raised just as many questions. No one knew who Dooku’s master was, or Maul’s for that matter, much less anyone further up the lineage. Was Dooku the master of Maul’s father? Or had he been a competitor to become a candidate for Sith apprentice, and orchestrated Maul’s disappearance after killing Maul’s father? The questions ran in circles.

Savage watched her try to puzzle the whole thing out, and shook his head. “There are other ways of escaping the tribe, however,” he said, aiming away from the subject. “Blood claims can be broken by other claims; in fact, a big part of the reason I am able to run as far as I have is because I was Chosen by Ventress as a mate.”

Barriss gave him a dry look. “That sounds like a match made in hell.”

“You don’t know the half of it. But, you notice that Mother used Maul as her vessel, not me, even though I was less likely to die as a result of it.”

“I thought she was just being…abusive.”

“She’s that, and she’s also a bitch. However, if she’d have been able to use me, she would have. From the look on her face, she had an entire scolding planned out for me, and she likes to make people hurt themselves.” Savage grinned. “It was lucky for Maul that she tried that on your turf; you broke her blood claim pretty quickly.”

Barriss accepted the compliment with a small smile, which died on her face as she considered the consequences. “You mean…I’ve claimed Maul?”

“You claimed everything in this ship and in medbay in particular. The only thing that didn’t apply to was me, because I have a prior claim.”

Something in her brain was short-circuiting. “…As…a mate…?”

“Well, you could certainly make it that way if you want, but Ventress has never…”

“No, you don’t understand. I’m his doctor. I’m going to be his surgeon. If I’m his…his spouse, it becomes unethical for me to perform the sort of procedures I need to perform in order to save his life…”

Savage stared at her. “Barriss, you are operating out of a stolen vehicle on its way to pirate territory, while absent without leave from your duties as a Jedi Knight and General.”

“Ethical doesn’t necessarily mean lawful.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, so it’s ethical to refrain from doing emergency surgery on a spouse when you are the only doctor in the area?”

“No…but…”

“You’ll be fine. Just…don’t let Maul know. He’s not the marrying type, I don’t think, so you really don’t have anything to worry about.”

Barriss thought back to the diamond that had appeared on her chest with a flash of sudden clarity, and felt like she was about to vomit.

***

There was something different about Doctor Offee’s demeanor after the incident. She was quieter, less combative, her thoughts turned inward for the first time since Maul had met her.

Not that he’d really tested her as he had in the days following Mother’s unwelcome visit. After only a few days in his acquaintance, she’d faced down a ghost witch on his account without flinching; she had more than proven her loyalty, and he was tired of constantly watching over his shoulder. And he had never won any of their tiny arguments anyway, so there wasn’t much point in starting another.

Still…it seemed, awkward, just to let her putter about the medbay, jotting down notes on flimsi for some sort of file, never making eye contact with him. That last bit was the oddest thing; she’d never flinched away from his eyes when she was putting him in his place (which happened a lot), but she’d screamed when he woke her up from a nightmare. Now, she would not look at him, or even call him Your Grace in the gently snide tone of voice she’d reserved for when he was his most deliberately annoying.

Not that he was being deliberately annoying now; the possibility that she would run away if he did was unfeasible for multiple reasons, namely his intestines, bladder, unmentionables, and, oh yes, HIS LEGS. And asking Savage what was going on got nowhere. The yellow stripes on his face colored a little in a blush, and he shrugged. “You’re going to have to talk to Barriss about it. I can’t read her mind.”

“You could if you’d let me teach you.”

“If you’re that determined to know, why don’t you read her mind?”

She can do that to you? Just…take over your body, without your consent? I know that feeling. It’s horrible.

Savage’s second shrug was just a little too innocent. “See…that’s what I thought.”

“Isn’t there something else you could be doing?”

“You summoned me here, Master.”

“Out.”

“Yes, Master.”

He was becoming entirely too bold and insolent for Maul’s taste. He’d blame it on Doctor Offee’s influence, but she was not her usually bold and insolent self and for the life of him he could not parse out why.

Finally, a day before they were scheduled to land on Florrum, he threw caution to the wind. “What is wrong with you?”

She was fiddling with the nano-droids again, comparing their stats against his chart and chewing idly on the handheld stylus. “Do you want the list aurebeshically, chronologically, physiologically, or in increasing or decreasing order of severity?” she asked without looking up from her work.

He pressed his fingers against his eyes. So, she wanted him to be more specific. Very well.

“Why won’t you talk to me?”

“I am talking to you.”

“Not like you were talking to me before.”

“And how was that?”

She still wouldn’t look up at him, and it was irritating. “You aren’t answering my questions.”

“Yes I am.”

“You’re not yelling at me.”

“You’re not doing anything stupid.”

“Do I have to do something stupid to get you to look at me?”

“Why do you want me to look at you?”

“You were looking at me before!”

“I was examining you before.”

“So examine me again!” 

“I don’t need to at the moment.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s really no reason to do so…”

***

Savage had had the best of intentions for that afternoon. Barriss tended to forget to eat, so he’d taken the charge of fixing meals upon himself. There weren’t too terribly many ingredients left in the refectory, but he liked to cook, and he liked a challenge. He’d made a simple soup this time, and brought it into the medbay on a tray.

And, they were arguing. Or, at least, Maul was arguing, and Barriss was working.

Scratch that. Barriss was pretending to work, but she hadn’t made any notes with her stylus in the minute Savage had observed her unnoticed.

She was intentionally being as obtuse as possible to rile up his brother’s nerves.

Savage turned around; the soup would keep in the icebox, and it warmed up well. He’d bring some back later when he could be reasonably sure she’d eat it.

What was the turn of phrase she used? A match made in hell? I think I’ll have to remember that…


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hondo Ohnaka is kept out of the limelight until he decides to behave himself when I write him. Also, politics, bounty hunting, and MAGGOTS.

The morning of the landing on Florrum dawned, and Savage and Maul watched bewilderedly as Barriss hurried about the ship in the process of packing a knapsack. “You know how to change his medication, right Savage?” she asked as she shoved an alarming amount of supplies and equipment into the bag.

“Uh…yes, but…”

“You aren’t…leaving us, are you?”

Somehow she had managed to fit every single gel-tub full of nano-droids into the sack, and that was not a reassuring sign. “Only for a few hours. Florrum essentially belongs to the Ohnaka gang, and they will most definitely search the ship as soon as they can reach it. Hiding in the vents won’t do any good, because they know that trick. I’m taking the things we absolutely cannot do without and running with them as soon as we hit the ground.”

“I can do that,” Savage said. It wasn’t that he doubted Barriss’s logic, far to the contrary; if push came to shove, she could do more for Maul at this stage than he could, and he wanted her to stay with him. And…well, she was so very small and skinny compared to him, and there was such a lot of weight in the bag…

She sighed. “I appreciate the offer, but it has to be me.”

“Why.”

“Because,” she glared back at Maul, “the Confederacy has placed a sizable bounty on any Mirialan found outside of their borders. The price gets steeper the more skilled a Mirialan is; a doctor and a former Jedi would merit the Ohnaka gang a great deal of money.”

Savage looked at Maul, who seemed just as lost as he was, and back at Barriss, who was hefting her bag experimentally and studying the liquid nutrition bags. “I don’t get it,” the older brother said at last. “What do the Separatists want with Mirialans?”

“Labor, mostly,” Barriss said, selecting a few more nutrition bags and gingerly placing them into one particular pocket. “Mirial has been in a catastrophic recession nearly a quarter of a century, since the Republic’s main shipyards were moved to Corellia. The most resourceful and most educated of our people left the planet in droves until it was a ghost of the culture it once was; scores of immigration drives and relocation benefits failed to have much of an impact, unfortunately. And that was when Mirial forbade emigration and threw in her lot with the Separatists, who brought back the shipyards, and took direct action to populate them.”

“They are hunting their own people?”

Maul’s eyes narrowed. “Have you run into this issue as a Jedi?”

“When I was Jedi, any bounty hunter knew that the only way they would get to me was through hundreds of overprotective super-soldiers, to say nothing of my fellow Jedi. Not to mention there weren’t too terribly many of us Mirialans in the Order to begin with; the Senate asked the Order to refrain from recruiting from Mirial around the time I built my first lightsaber. It just was not worth the effort for anyone to try capturing one of us when a lone professor too poor to hire bodyguards could get them a decent check with less risk.”

It seemed like a terrible state of affairs all around, and Savage was sympathetic; Maul, however, was naturally more suspicious. “How do we know you’re not just crafting a story in order to escape us?”

“Are you suggesting that I would willingly abandon a patient?” she snarled. “I swore an oath, Maul.”

“You also swore an oath to the Jedi Order.”

“The Jedi Order requires no oaths or vows; we break no promises by leaving it. Mirialan physicians, however…?” she chuckled darkly, and made pointed eye contact with the patient in question. “Only death can part me from my duty. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

***

They landed on the night side of the planet, and touchdown went smoothly. True to her word, Barriss was out the door as soon as the ship stopped moving, taking off toward the south to avoid the large town ten clicks to the north.

Savage watched her go, even though the sulfurous air stunk like rotten eggs. He had to reassure himself that she knew what she was doing, and so it was only when her dark form faded from sight that he retreated back into the ship.

Maul had turned on the local comm channel, and Savage doubted that it was coincidence that he chose to examine the ‘wanted’ ads first. Sure enough, there was a bounty out for Mirialans in general, asking for them to be brought to Raxus Prime for ‘relocation.’

“She was telling the truth.”

“Of course she was, brother. She’s not very good at lying.”

Maul shot him a look. “Neither are you.”

Savage shrugged. “Being dishonest got a man beaten on Dathomir.”

“Being a man got a man beaten on Dathomir.”

“And that is why we’re not going back…hey, is that Ventress?”

“…Is it?” Maul conceded, tilting the holo toward Savage. “I confess I’ve never met the woman.”

“Son of a gundark, she survived the purge. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me. She’s tougher than rancor leather, that one.”

Maul raised a disparaging eyebrow. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were glad of the development. Didn’t she mistreat you?”

Savage clenched his hands into fists. “She mistreated me and many of my brothers. I’d welcome the chance to repay the favor. I’d just thought Grievous got to her first.”

“Right, Grievous; you’ll have to tell me more about him…hold on…”

There was another ad, this time for Barriss specifically, her familiar face front-and-center. MISSING, it said, listing off a dizzyingly high price for her safe return to the Republic. There were lesser rewards as well for any information regarding her whereabouts, and a burner comm code which would direct any informants to a Commander Gree.

“That could be enough to buy a moon or something,” Savage said.

“Hmm,” Maul hummed around the hand on his lips. “Let me try…” He typed in a specific search for Barriss Offee; she had a third price on her head from the Separatists, supposedly for information regarding a planet called Umbara. “What have you been up to, Doctor?”

“Do they have any word on what happened on Umbara?”

“It’s likely protected information.” Maul studied the posters for a few seconds more before he tapped on the holocommunicator.

“Did you just claim the bounties?”

“Of course I claimed the bounties; we don’t want anyone going after our Doctor until we’re done with her. Especially if Sing is still active after all these years…”

A knock sounded on the open hatch, and Maul hurriedly switched off the holocommunicator seconds before a Weequay sauntered casually toward the medbay.

“Howdy, neighbors!” Hondo Ohnaka said with a grin. “Welcome to Florrum!”

***

Barriss returned in the wee hours of the early morning to find that Savage and Maul had set up camp around the freighter. Maul only realized she was there when she peeked into the tent Savage had rigged with several medbay sheets and what was left of the crate boxes.

“You’re still awake?” she whispered.

He nodded to Savage, who had once again taken several pillows and curled up on the ground, covered with a number of blankets. “It was his turn to rest.”

She slipped into the enclosure, examining the equipment carefully. “Did the Ohnaka gang force you out here like this?”

“Indirectly; they had this little demon of a Kowakian monkey lizard that relieved itself all over everything. Savage decided to get the medical equipment out of there before it decided to eat something important.”

She set down the bag. “I suppose that means we won’t be able to go back inside until we do a decent deep clean.”

“Well, we could just leave the hatch open and let the atmosphere fumigate it.”

That earned him a soft laugh. “It would help.”

She busied herself in noting his vitals and changing the bags in the same process she had obviously used for years. He studied her every movement, the painkillers making him feel like he was in a waking dream.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked after a few minutes. He didn’t particularly want to sleep; his dreams had never been kind to him, but after Lotho Minor they were notably more vicious.

“Because it’s time to change the medication.”

“That’s an excellent evasive answer, Doctor, but I’m sure you know what I mean.”

“It’s been a long night. I can’t presume to know anything at the moment.”

“Barriss.” That got her; her eyes focused on his face more steadily than they had for the past three days. “Why are you helping us? And don’t give me the same answer about your oath. You could have walked away when you saw me, but you did not.”

“And leave you in the state you were in? My conscience would have hounded me to an early grave.” She was done changing the bags by now, and found the medbay chair where Savage had left it. She sat down, and leaned upon the bed. Good; she was giving their conversation her full attention.

“But what do you have to gain from this? Savage and I cannot pay you,” and nor did she have any guarantee that they would not turn her in for the money she was worth, or simply kill her. Maul did not care for either option; the Republic and the Confederacy could learn too much about him from her, and she was far too valuable an asset to kill. But, there was no way she could really know his motivations.

Barriss shrugged. “I suppose…clarity of purpose?”

He stared at her; even Savage was here out of a misplaced sense of filial piety, and to fill a void left by a brother that was gone. She had to want more than that. “Did you not have that with the Jedi?”

She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “Do you have that with the Sith?”

“Touché, but you have to admit the recruitment pitch was worth a try.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I’m not any more suited to the Sith than I am for the Jedi.” Her eyes grew distant. “That was made quite clear.”

The next question he had for her was a risk; obviously there had been some strong emotions involved in her decision to desert, so he had to phrase this carefully. “I happened to read a poster about you; it said you were wanted in connection to something that happened on Umbara. Would you be willing to talk to me about it?”

She looked askance at him. “What is your purpose for that information?”

He shrugged. “It pays to know the people closest to you. And you, Doctor, are full of guile, so I want to know your capabilities in case you ever decide I’m not worth the risk to your life.”

“That’s not going to happen,” she said with a touch to his arm; he noticed it, as he noticed any sort of contact which he did not initiate, but to her it seemed almost instinctive to make this small, comforting gesture.

“Is it not?”

“Never,” she reiterated. “But…well, I’ll tell you a little bit about Umbara, since my word seems to mean so little to you.”

“Well, you were a Jedi…”

She smiled again, shaking her head. “You’re incorrigible.”

“You’re stalling.”

“Brat.” There was an intake of breath, and her eyes were once again light-years away. “Let’s just say that on Umbara, I was forced to choose between my obedience to my military superiors and my sacred oath as a doctor. Many people died as a result, and I was expected to accept that outcome because they were not my faction’s political allies. I chose not to do so.” She pulled the sheets up to cover him more fully, avoiding his eyes. “Compassion is supposed to transcend division, not be dictated by it. I am here because you need help which I can give; I shall require nothing further, in the end.”

Every hour of training he had received told him that such a philosophy was naïve, foolish even, weak. And yet, in gentle Barriss Offee’s eyes he saw none of those things; she had to require something more. People simply were not kind without motive or reason, not even Jedi…especially not Jedi.

And yet, she was not a Jedi any longer…

“Go to sleep, Maul; I’ll take the next watch. You’ll need your strength when we start the treatment tomorrow.”

He closed his eyes to make a show of compliance, but he had a feeling he would feel no rest, even if the drugs did manage to render him unconscious.

***

That morning, after breakfast, Barriss retrieved one particular jar of bacta from her rucksack and brought it with her when she and Savage went through the ever-present process of changing the medication bags. “I am going to start a procedure today,” she said conversationally. “It is one that I could not do before now because I hadn’t the necessary tools, which I was able to gather during my absence yesterday. It is vitally necessary before I even begin to regrow your lower half; however, it also has the tendency of making patients uncomfortable.”

“Indeed?” Maul was wearing that expression which told her his patience was only sustained by the fact that she was currently entertaining him.

She refrained from showing frustration outwardly, instead taking the bacta out and holding it in her hands in a way so that he could not yet see inside. “There is a great deal of necrotic tissue in your abdominal region…not as much as there should be, really, but I’ll attribute that to your skill in using the Dark Side. The dead tissue likely protected your vital organs from collapsing to infection years ago, but it has served its purpose. It needs to be debrided so that healthy tissue can be cloned to take its place.”

“Debrided…as in cut away?”

“I can debride it surgically, yes, but the damage is extensive, and in places far too delicate for me to reach. If I was to take a scalpel to you, or use chemicals, there is a chance that I would injure you further.”

“So, what do you propose to do?”

She made a show of opening the tub of bacta and showing its contents to Savage. “I intend to use sterilized maggots.”

Neither man jumped at her reveal, but she’d been expecting that; Maul had lived on a trash planet for years, and Dathomirian insect pupae were a delicacy in certain regions. However, she had wanted to make decently sure that there were no phobias, because most patients she’d worked with were startled…and one really never knew just what sort of horrifying mutations could happen to maggots in a place such as Lotho Minor.

Still, her attempt at tact left her feeling rather silly, especially with the nasty little grin that showed up on Maul’s face. “Can I see it closely?” he asked. She complied, and quick as a flash he grabbed a single maggot and popped it in his mouth. His smirk of triumph turned into a grimace of distaste, and she couldn’t help the little half-smile that turned up her own mouth.

“Like I said, they are disinfected. I refuse to put something that’s been chewing on a dead skalder on my patient’s skin without cleaning it first.”

Maul spat the dead maggot out on the floor, and Savage caught Barriss’s attention, his eyes wide and unblinking with suppressed merriment. “Excuse me, Doctor.” He slipped out of the tent, and a few moments later uproarious laughter echoed throughout the encampment.

“Enjoy the feeling while it lasts, apprentice!” Maul shouted. “I WILL HAVE MY VINDICA…wait, are you starting?”

She batted her eyelashes in her best affectation of innocence. “I find it usually helps if the patient is somewhat distracted. Tough guy or not, the sensation can be rather disconcerting.”

He scoffed. “You are coddling someone who has lived in the garbage for more than a decade.”

“I’m not coddling you. I am treating you with respect.”

“I’ve not earned your respect.”

“Have you not? You’ve lived through many circumstances that should have killed you, and would have killed me, had I encountered them.”

His eyes narrowed. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Doctor.”

“Ah, yes. You may have lived through getting cut in half, falling a good click if not two, and living in and subsisting upon refuse for a dozen years, but your utter and complete lack of oral hygiene totally negates any other accomplishment and you should feel bad.”

He rolled his eyes. “Now you are mocking me.”

“I am having a quiet laugh at your expense, yes. Such a thing also suits as a distraction.”

He was silent for a few moments, obviously trying to come up with some sort of response; he seemed to need to be the one who had the last word in an argument.

“After years of medical training, do you not trust the steadiness of your own hands?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied, setting the last maggot at the remains of his spine. “All of that training actually served to break any sort of pride in my own abilities, actually. It pays to know one’s limits, and my hands get shaky at this sort of thing.”

“Couldn’t you just program the nano-droids to do this?”

She sat up and pulled over the tub of the tech in question; as the maggots worked their way through the necrotic tissue, she would spread the gel in their wake so that they could start cloning before Maul bled too much. “I have done so in the past, but nano-droids are built in a way that they only have enough processing power to complete one action. They would debride, and they would keep debriding, even once they hit healthy tissue.” Maul made a face, and she nodded significantly. “Exactly. It’s best to stick to natural tools as much as possible, in my opinion.”

Savage chose then to return, still smiling tremulously under Maul’s judgmental eye. “What’d I miss?”

“The Doctor has chosen to let me be eaten by foul-tasting vermin rather than evil technology.”

“Sounds fair.”

“What a world we live in.”

“So fancy and modern.”

“Sarcasm does not suit either of you,” and yet, she said this with a smile, which turned into a laugh when Maul of all people stuck his tongue out at her. It was a good thing she was no longer a Jedi; it was so good to have conversations such as these without worrying about growing attached


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we catch up with what's going on in the Republic while our trio of protagonists hits a boring patch.

_Commander Gree could remember a time when it was a rare honor for a clone to be allowed into the Jedi Temple. His men had either cringed with the fear of accidentally breaching some code of conduct or another, or stood in awe of the art and history with which they suddenly found themselves surrounded; every Jedi they had passed had pulled a subtle double-take, unaccustomed to seeing clones in their hallowed halls. Now, the Jedi welcomed them with open arms, often calling them by name, and the clones took advantage of every instant they could spend in this place of quiet and healing. Gree had even caught the esteemed Master Yoda dancing like a youngling to a beat which the shinies of the 41 st eagerly provided, after which he became their division’s unofficial mascot – he had not accepted a command of his own, so why not keep him as their adopted grandfather?_

_These people, so different from his brothers and yet so similar, fashioned from separate bolts of cloth into comparable shapes – these Jedi were his family, blood of his heart, which was why it hurt so much to see them act so unlike family toward each other, like they were right now when one of their own was missing. The news had struck a terrible blow to his division, even though Barriss had long ago been promoted and advanced to other assignments. He could see that it hurt the Jedi as well – Yoda had mentored the mentor of Cyslin Myr long ago, and she in turn had mentored Generals Windu and Unduli, so the disappearance was like a death in the family. And yet, all of the remaining Jedi of that lineage had pushed aside their obvious personal feelings in the matter to press forward with their duty._

_General Unduli, especially, took the order to discontinue the search with grace and a stiff upper lip. But behind closed doors, she fell apart at the seams, and he just couldn’t bear to watch anymore. He had to do something. So, he contacted Cody._

_Even recovering from Umbara, and from the recent, senseless death of his own general, Cody had readily accepted his appointment. Perhaps it was genetic; this inescapable urge to do something, anything, for family when it seemed nothing could be done. The Commander of the Third Systems army met Gree in his barracks office, his arm tastefully painted with a black stripe at his bicep to signify his mourning, listening to his younger brother’s story with one hand tragically moving to cup his chin in a habit no longer practiced by General Kenobi._

_“Commander Tano went missing for two weeks a few months ago,” Cody said after a moment. “It was the same story; General Skywalker searched every available avenue for her, but found nothing. Turns out, she’d been kidnapped by Trandoshans; she kicked their shebse to kingdom come, and came home with a few new friends.”_

_“Don’t Trandoshans try to stick to young Jedi and clone troopers, though?”_

_“Not clone troopers,” Cody smirked, a sad gleam in his eye. “Not after the beating Kenobi gave them for taking a few of my men for the same purpose. But Tano is nicer than Kenobi was; she might not have left enough of a spectacle for the lizards to take a hint.” He did not elaborate on what sort of spectacle that might have been, and Gree did not ask. “Talk to General Lissarkh,” Cody said, handing him directions through the Temple to the requisite Jedi’s quarters. “Make sure her Padawan, Commander Syndulla, is there when you do it.”_

_“Why?”_

_“You’ll see.”_

***

The most inconvenient thing about nano-droid cloning involving the bowels of any species was that once it was started, it had to be closely monitored the whole time. The nerve clusters in the intestines were particularly intricate; one RNA strand out of place, and the patient could be left with a debilitating condition which would require further treatment.

Maul’s case was special, however; he had several irreplaceable arteries to regrow, as well as substantial damage to his renal system. This would have to be done in one sitting, or there was a substantial risk that he’d bleed to death.

That was not even bringing up how excruciatingly painful it would be to grow back vital organs over the space of a day. Barriss had Maul on the highest dose of narcotics she thought he could stand – nearly three times the normal dose for his species – and yet he was _still_ stubbornly conscious, and his eyes twitched tellingly in an effort to hide his discomfort.

In short, he needed a distraction, she needed a reason to stay awake, and Savage needed to be prevented from worrying himself into an ulcer over the whole scenario. And Barriss thought she had just the thing.

“Savage,” she said conversationally, standing in order to rummage through her knapsack, “isn’t there something your people do to help when someone is injured or sick?”

The taller brother shot her a significant look. _He doesn’t know I know he purrs_.

She brought out her sabacc set – it was only the flimsi cards, not the typical electric ones, but it paid to keep in practice with the physical set anyway. Not all gambling dens could afford state-of-the-art equipment.

“Humor me, Savage. We’ve got a long day ahead of us and we need to preserve our supplies as much as possible.”

He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, and after a moment, a deep, tentative purr shook through the gurney. Maul glanced in horror between Savage and Barriss. “You don’t have to… _Jedi_! That is a sign of _weakness!_ ”

Savage’s purr halted at his tone, but Barriss would not be intimidated. She set the cards on Maul’s uninjured abdomen like she would a table, dealing in both brothers and herself. “There is an old proverb I learned growing up – ‘brittle grows glass that remains unwashed.’” At least, she _thought_ it was a proverb, though it could have just been a Yoda-ism; the two concepts tended to overlap.

“And what exactly is _that_ supposed to mean?”

“It means that if you value something fragile, you have to maintain it rather than hide it away; otherwise it’ll just become even more fragile.” She took her hand of cards and held it close to her chest, gesturing for the others to do the same. “If, say, you had an engine that made no noise, would you think it strong?”

He sighed. “I would think that it would not start and try to fix the problem.”

“In the same way, a Zabrak in pain, or watching someone he loves in pain, should be purring.” She lifted her eyebrows at Savage, who cleared his throat and started the sound again with more confidence, gathering his cards to examine them. “I’d recommend you do it as well. You’ll feel a great deal better.”

“I am no _child_. I _do not purr_.” But, tellingly, Maul was leaning slightly toward Savage even as he spoke.

“Did you purr as a child?”

“…That is beside the point,” Maul sniffed. “Besides, you are not a Zabrak. Aren’t you uncomfortable?”

“I’ve healed Zabrak before; it’s perfectly natural.”

“I’m presuming they were under the age of ten.”

“No, I’m thinking of Master Eeth Koth, of the High Jedi Council.” _That_ got his attention; for all his posturing, Maul was at heart a grumpy old gossip. “Ah, but I shouldn’t say anything more than that he did, indeed, purr throughout his treatment, and it greatly diminished the time it took for him to heal.”

“Well, a Jedi may perhaps avail themselves of natural proceedings, but a Sith overcomes them,” Maul groused, picking up his own cards. “What are you doing with these?”

“Teaching you boys how to cheat at sabacc.”

They both boggled at her. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Savage trilled, still purring even though he was trying not to laugh. “First things first. What’s sabacc?”

“It’s a betting game played by drunken spacers,” Maul answered, eying Barriss dubiously. “Did your Master know this about you?”

“No, but the regularly inebriated staff of the Medstar unit where I was stationed did,” she said with a grin. “They refused to play with me once I got good at it because I stole their keys and woke them up during their hangovers.”

Savage was fully smiling now. “I was pretty good at betting games back on Dathomir. We wagered with seeds and pretty rocks.”

“We don’t have either of those… _although_ ,” Maul grinned. “We can bet information. Start with little details and work up to more _interesting_ stories.”

This was probably an intensely bad idea, but it was also probably the only way she was going to get any real medical history for Maul besides what she’d already pulled from his brain. So, Barriss agreed. “All right, whoever wins the pot asks the other two for a story of their choosing. Now, Savage, here are the values assigned to each card…”

***

_General Lissarkh was a Trandoshan. Gree had not expected the Order to actually recruit them – he knew that another related reptilian species called the Barabel was completely barred from becoming Jedi, due to their aggressive nature. However, he had read on her file that she had been a Padawan of General Koon; perhaps he had persuaded the Council to make an exception by taking full responsibility of her training. She herself seemed as even-keeled, light-hearted, and selfless as any typical Jedi, inviting Gree into her home when he came to call, and offering him a tantalizingly scented tea imported from Ryloth._

_Her Padawan, Jacen ‘Call me_ Jinx _, Commander, that’s an_ order _’ Syndulla seemed a harder sell than her. There lurked a feral mistrust of anything and everything in the young Twi’lek’s eyes, and Gree felt like he was being measured with every breath the boy watched him breathe._

_That all changed when he admitted why he had chosen to visit them._

_“Barriss is gone?” Jinx asked, and for a moment Gree saw the grieving child for who he was._

_Lissarkh placed a strong orange hand on her student’s shoulder. “Knight Offee served as my Padawan’s trauma counselor, Commander. You’ll have to forgive his outburst.”_

_“There’s nothing to forgive, General, not in front of me.” Gree sipped his tea quietly. Barriss had never really seemed to realize just what an impact she had on the people around her; when he found her, he would be all too pleased to inform her of how short-sighted that was. “Commander Cody said that Commander Ahsoka Tano disappeared a few months ago in much the same way; he thought that you two might have a specialty which leaned in that direction.”_

_One of Syndulla’s green lekku coiled in a way that a human might have clenched a fist. “Did he also say that Ahsoka was brought to the same moon where I had been living for nearly two years? Or that we were hunted for sport?”_

_Oh, the poor kid. “No, no he didn’t mention that.”_

_Lissarkh squeezed Jinx’s shoulder comfortingly. “There are extremists in every religion; since the war started, my people have backslid significantly into such practices. I had been making headway in getting the hunts legally restricted to non-sapient creatures, but the war broke out before the bill could be signed, and all was forgotten.” She hissed pensively under her breath, looking out the window, which was Jedi body language signifying that she was in the process of thinking through a very big decision._

_Jinx curled the tip of one lek affectionately around her wrist. “We could at least look, Master.”_

_“For you,_ looking _implies_ breaking heads _.”_

_“You have to admit that there are fewer heads to break now.”_

_“Indeed.” Lissarkh nodded respectfully at Gree. “We will make some inquiries, Commander, and contact you if we should find anything.”_

_“You have my sincerest gratitude.”_

***

Maul and Savage were _terrible_ at sabacc. It shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did – Savage had lived a somewhat restricted lifestyle on Dathomir, and Maul seemed to have no use for deception on such a petty scale – but it was still a little disconcerting to realize that she was more of a delinquent in this aspect than two literal Sith apprentices. In order to avoid alienating Maul completely, she even had to let them win a couple of rounds.

The second time she did that, however, Maul glared at her. “Do _not_ do that again.”

“Do what?”

“You know what. I want to win fairly.”

“Then you have to start playing _well_ , Your Grace.”

As she intended, he took that as a challenge. Still, the next round, Barriss won quite handily, even if Savage gave her a run for her money. She allowed herself to gloat a little – both men seemed to think it in good fun when she did, and it motivated them to try harder. “Okay, tell me your favorite fairy or folk tale as a child.” Maul was starting to catch on to the fact that she was getting his medical history; she had to mix it up with a few inane little questions like this.

Savage thought for a moment. “We used to tell stories of the Rancor Mother, who would take children away to her grotto in the mountains. I’m pretty sure that they expected us to think she ate them so that we wouldn’t go out after dark, but I liked to think she took them as children or pets.”

“Anything to get away from the Witches, right?” Maul sounded as if he wanted to mock Savage, but the question just came out bittersweet and wistful.

Savage shrugged. “It makes sense to me. What about your story, brother?”

Maul glanced between them sheepishly. “I had a window, in the place where I grew up. I could see my reflection, and pretended it was another person, one with whom I could have intelligent conversations.”

“Like Aann of the Greenhouse?” Barriss said without thinking.

Both brothers blinked. “Who?”

“It’s a,” she blushed, “a children’s story from Mirial. It’s about a little orphaned girl from the tropics who is adopted by a pair of elderly siblings to help them run their greenhouse in the north. She had imaginary friends in windows, too.” As a girl, she had empathized with Aann, being a little lonely herself, even amongst all her books; as an adult, she could see that melodramatic and stand-offish Maul, with his vibrant red skin, fiery temper, and desperation for sapient contact, probably was more like Aann than she had ever had any hope of being.

Not that he’d take that as the compliment she meant it to be, seeing how he bristled when Savage started laughing. “Cease this meaningless half-wittery!”

“ _The look on your face!_ ”

Maul rolled his eyes and smacked lightly at Barriss’s hands. “You are _only_ supposed to _share_ information when you _lose_ , _Doctor_.”

“Then _win_ , dammit, and ask me for a better plot summary.”

“ _I intend to_.”

***

_One week after the conversation with Lissarkh and Syndulla, Gree finally managed to corner Tutso Mara. He could tell that he and Barriss had been batchmates, or whatever the Jedi called them; the Umbaran youth was almost as slippery as she was, and Gree found him sequestered deep in the Archives._

_When he described his errand to the young Jedi Knight, however, Mara sighed in irritation and waved him away with one pale hand. “I’ve no idea where Barriss Offee could be, Commander, and frankly I could care less.”_

_Gree restrained himself from grabbing the kid’s hood and slamming his head into the table a few times, but it was a close thing. “Begging your pardon, sir, but you were assigned to Umbara at the same time and on the same front as she was. If anyone had any lead on where she could be, it would be you.”_

_“Yes, and if anyone could have known my former Master was planning on committing treason and defecting to the enemy, it would have been me as well. But it wasn’t.” General Mara gathered up the texts he had been studying – botanical texts on an Umbaran plant known to produce a type of amphetamine, from what Gree could see. “After what Pong pulled, the Council grilled me every which way about Umbara. You can listen through the remote recording of the mission debriefing, Commander; everything I know is there.”_

_“But I have listened to it, sir,” Gree said, following after Mara as he hurried toward the Archives’ exit. “And the recording of their interview with Barriss as well…”_

_Mara stopped short, and shot Gree a look of pure disgust. “‘Barriss’ ?” he sneered. “That’s getting your chain of command just a little tangled, isn’t it,_ Commander _?”_

_Gree restrained himself from finding the heaviest holo-book on the shelf beside him and slamming it repeatedly into Mara’s head, but it was a close thing. “Your pardon, sir,” he replied. “I forgot that this was a formal interview.”_

_Mara scoffed. “Well, Commander, maybe if you’d kept up contact with your little_ girlfriend _, you’d know that she was two steps from treachery herself. She fought me tooth and nail to let the Separatists have some of our stimulants; I refrained from telling the Council about it because we grew up together, and she was wise enough to keep her mouth shut so that she would not be kicked out of the Order for her attachments to the enemy. Or to her_ soldiers _, for that matter.”_

_“Sir, that is out of line. General Offee and I are nothing more than…”_

_“Close personal friends? You know how many times I’ve heard that lie? I’ve half a mind to…”_

_“What is going_ on _here?” hissed another voice, and the two men broke apart from their argument as Jocasta Nu advanced upon them._

_Mara bowed hastily. “My apologies, Master. I was just leaving.” With one last dirty look thrown Gree’s way, he retreated towards the exit. Gree restrained himself from pulling out his stun pistol and shooting his disrespectful shebs, but it was a close thing._

_“Deeply sorry, ma’am,” he said with a smart salute. “Philosophical dispute; it won’t happen again.”_

_Nu considered him carefully. “Were you ‘just leaving’ as well, Gree?” she asked; he had been in the Archives so often for his zoological research that she probably knew him by sight. “Or is there something I can help you find?”_

_In that moment, Gree loved her with every inch of his little nerdy heart. “Well, ma’am, is there a section on Umbaran botanicals that General Mara did not just borrow? I’d like to see that…”_

***

As the morning, afternoon, and evening wore on, the nano-droids did their tireless work. Barriss stopped the game every now and then to check their progress, sense out the nerves they had grown in the Force, and apply more gel when necessary; so far, no mistakes had been made.

When sunset rolled around, so did the inevitable time when Maul would have to be catheterized, but, when she broached the subject, he balked. “I don’t need that.”

“You’re not going to be able to reach the ‘fresher on your own…”

“I can hold it until my legs are finished.”

“That’s going to take the rest of the night, for one…and for two, muscle memory can’t be cloned. Your new legs won’t even know _how_ to walk yet. Nor will your new bladder know how to eliminate.” Barriss tried not to get angry, but she _had_ explained that he would need physical therapy to recover full use of his limbs before now, and he had not objected.

He _simmered_ with rage. “I should have kept the old legs.”

“Without the use of magic, you would have died of sepsis in the space of a year.”

“You are _not_ doing it.” Now his arms were folded, and he _glowered_.

“Barriss, if you tell me how…”

“ _You are not doing it either._ I will _wait_ until my _legs_ are _finished_.”

Savage slowly got on one knee, so that his eyes came level with Maul’s. “Brother, I understand this is embarrassing, but it’s got to be done.”

“No it _does not_.”

“Brother, this is _simple_ compared to everything else she’s done. Barriss worked with the army! She’s probably done this _hundreds_ of times, maybe even _thousands_.”

Savage looked to her for backup, and she nodded in confirmation. “More along the line of _millions_ ; it’s really nothing more than another body part to me.” 

Maul’s cheeks flushed puce, and he sought to cover that fact with his crossed arms. “That _is not helping_.”

“I promise that it will take two seconds, at the most.” She sighed; she’d never actually had a patient get a case of the bashfuls before. Jedi generally understood that she was a trained doctor, and deferred gracefully to her expertise. Clones tended to compare and contrast their… _equipment_ (even though or perhaps _especially because_ they were usually identical); the only thing that made them the least bit uncomfortable was the fact that she knew the punchlines to all of their ribald jokes before they made them. She had little experience in working with such matters with the public; someone like Maul, isolated from early childhood, who was plainly used to fighting against ‘medical procedures’ involving this, was completely out of her wheelhouse.

Fortunately, Savage saw her flailing for something to say, and decided to take the reins.

“Let me put it this way, brother,” he said, his tone brooking no argument. “Pissing yourself in front of us is going to be a hell of a lot more embarrassing.”

“That’s assuming…”

“Dammit, Maul, just lay off the drama and let Barriss DO HER JOB!”

Savage never had never outright _roared_ in front of either of them. Maul shrunk from him, more insulted than scared; Barriss recoiled, not ashamed to admit that she was _just_ a little bit scared. The larger Zabrak growled warningly at his brother, nodding at Barriss to proceed. She had been right; it took two seconds, then she covered the area with a sheet and promptly forgot what everything looked like.

“Now,” Savage rumbled. “Was that so hard?”

Maul rolled his eyes, and Barriss heaved a sigh of relief. She was having _Savage_ change the bedpans when this was over. It was decided.

***

_When General Unduli returned to her quarters, Gree was already there, studying his borrowed botanical text for probably the seventh time that week. He barely noticed when she came in; he’d been burying himself here ever since Commander Syndulla made his report with big, sad eyes. ‘We couldn’t find anything,’ he’d said, ‘and Liz lost an arm trying. It’s okay, it’ll grow back in a week; I just wish we could do more.’ He’d waved the kid away, thanking him for his trouble, telling him to give his master his thanks and to tell her to get better soon, the whole spiel._

_Meanwhile, General Kenobi was not, in fact, dead, and the entire 212 th was ticked, to say nothing about Skywalker. Tano was in no place to help, still processing the lifetime she had had to live that week on _top _of her best friend’s disappearance; Skywalker’s not-so-secret wife, Senator Amidala, decided to take her to a peace conference for a change of pace._

_And of course, Jedi Knight Tutso Mara had reported Gree to his superiors for breaking fraternization regulations. Cody had just about shot him. “Fraternization regulations are in place for keeping_ brothers _from sleeping with_ brothers _, General; there’s nothing saying that a Jedi and a clone trooper can’t get it on in the privacy of their own damn bunk. You want to report to someone? Talk to your fekking Council.”_

_“They won’t listen to me while Knight Offee isn’t here to defend her actions.”_

_“I’m missing the clause which makes it my problem. Kindly get the_ kark _out of my office so I can finish drafting a stern letter to a Jedi I actually respect.”_

_Gree knew better than to expect that to be the end of it; Cody was_ very good _at fudging the rules for his siblings (Jedi included), but if Mara ever got any real evidence of misconduct between Barriss and Gree, he would not be able to defend them against the actual letter of the law._

_And while Gree had_ never _committed misconduct with Barriss – and had threatened to_ murder _troopers who had joked about something like that – he_ was _currently sitting in her Master’s room, on her Master’s bedroll, watching as her Master removed her veil and combed her fingers through her glossy, tightly-curled hair. Good stars, he was a lucky man._

_“Still working?” Luminara said with a smile, sitting close to him and kissing him on the cheek._

_Good, she didn’t know what he was up to; current Code-bending activities excluded, Luminara tried to follow orders whenever possible. “Just a little hobby on the side, nothing too big,” he shrugged._

_She was not a stupid woman, however. She saw the title of the book he was reading; no doubt she’d heard_ something _about his inquiries around the Temple, and put two and two together. She pressed her forehead to his, a tear falling silently from one of her beautiful blue eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered, and his heart melted once again._

_He’d killed for this woman. He’d tried to die for this woman. Come hell or high water, he’d find this woman’s daughter for her, if it was the last thing he ever did._

_“Luminara…I’m sorry, I know this might hurt. Can you guess any reason why Barriss would want to give enemy soldiers amphetamines?”_

***

Somewhere around midnight, Savage nudged Barriss awake. “Your turn at the watch, little one.”

She sat up blearily; somehow she’d managed to fall asleep with her head pillowed on the gurney. “I’m up, I’m up…” She paused, something clicking into place in her brain. “You didn’t trill when you spoke. You’re not purring.”

“No.”

“So that noise is…”

“Maul.”

He’d previously been so uncomfortable with them that he wouldn’t even purr in his sleep in their presence. Now, he made the noise continuously, almost as naturally as snoring.

Barriss threw her hands up in the air. “ _Yes!_ ” she cheered in a whisper. “It _worked_!”

Savage shook his head fondly. “Shh, it took forever just to get him to sleep…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tutso Mara's species, backstory, and personality are entirely fabrications on my part. I'm told people want character development to hit him like a truck. I've been informed that Commander Gree has purchased a landspeeder and named it Character Development for that very purpose.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a below-decks conspiracy is hatched, Savage is a Good Mom, and Ventress and Razzi get themselves a bounty.

After an utterly disastrous couple of days on Mandalore, and then on Carlac, and then on some wayside planet after her Master picked her and R2 up from the middle of nowhere when her borrowed cruiser ran out of fuel, Ahsoka wanted to talk to her best friend. Actually, she wanted to find her best friend and collapse into a puddle of tears, snot, and incoherent gibbering about how everything _sucked_ ; it wasn’t really a conversation she could have with Anakin, or Obi-Wan, or Rex, or anyone in the 501st, or Plo, or even Padmé, because _all_ of them were going through hell right now and didn’t need her to contribute to it.

She reached Barriss’s dorm room before she realized it was probably still empty. Then, she heard voices inside, and saw red. The housing council couldn’t have reassigned it already! Barriss hadn’t even been gone a month! Unless they had incontrovertible proof that she…wasn’t coming back…but she _refused_ to let her mind go there.

Ahsoka had learned many, many secrets simply by making her Force signature as quiet as possible and listening as hard as a Togruta child could manage. She hadn’t eavesdropped like this in quite a while, but it was easier than before simply because her montrals had grown. Standing like this with her face pressed against Barriss’s door, she could hear every word said inside that room.

“…telling you kid, _stay out of it_. If I get caught breaking Jedi orders, I get demoted. If _you_ get caught…”

“Gree, I don’t give a single _frotz_ if I get caught. Have you _seen_ the price the Seps put on Mirialans?”

“I’ve _seen_ it, but I don’t think she was kidnapped for that purpose. I think she ran.”

“And the Order thought my entire youngling clan died in a hyperspace accident. It doesn’t matter _why_ she’s gone. We just need to get her back, because who _knows_ what is happening to her _right_ _now_.”

Ahsoka slammed her fist into the button that opened the door, and she heard the two people inside startle at the sound. Casually, she sidled into the room, letting the door shut behind her as she crossed her arms; nothing like a decently dramatic entrance to get someone’s attention, as Anakin liked to put it.

“I’m in.”

Commander Gree and Padawan Jinx Syndulla stared dumbly at her for a second. Then, the Twi’lek waved one lek in the understated signs for ‘well, _hi_ ’, while Gree mustered his Command Tone™ for a full frontal assault.

“Not _you_ too, Commander.”

“I said, _I’m in_.”

“ _Child_ , your entire division belongs in full-time therapy.”

“That’s the half of it that isn’t _dead_ because of that _sleemo_ Krell. Oh, and my grand-Master is a masochist who’s learned how to come back from the dead, my _Master_ is going mynockshit insane and everyone knows it, my Master’s quote-unquote _close personal friend_ is drafting papers to sue for custody over me, and I just got my shebs grabbed by a chick wearing beskar gauntlets.”

Jinx gave a low whistle. “ _Yes_ girl, let it _all_ out…”

Gree growled. “Who is this person and how permanently do you want her injured?”

“My _point_ is that _I’m in_ , whether you like it or not. I need something to get my focus off of everything, or I’m going to lose my bugslutting mind. And Barriss is _my friend, too_. I want to help, in any way that I can.”

The clone commander looked at her, and then at Jinx, who gestured sarcastically in her direction.

“What she said. You either cut us in, or you put up with us stalking you while you work.”

Gree glanced at Barriss’s little statue of Palurin, then at the ceiling, beseeching the heavens for release from his torment. “I’m going to regret this…I’m _already_ regretting this. All right,” he conceded, rubbing at his temples. “Here’s what I know…”

***

_At first, they’d laughed to see that Umbaran troops were wearing oxygen tanks on this, their home planet, with air they had_ evolved _to breathe. Only after one squad surrendered to her men did Barriss learn the truth; it wasn’t pure oxygen they were breathing, but a dangerous stimulant cocktail with the main ingredient of aerosol amphetamine. And, like_ most _amphetamines, it was never a good idea to abruptly halt treatment after the patient had been on a concentrated dose for a long time._

_This was the third Umbaran soldier in the past twenty minutes to succumb to the seizures. It happened while she was standing; she hit her head hard when she hit the ground, and had probably already sustained significant damage to her neural tissue as a result of the drugs. Despite Vomer’s best efforts, she died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her peers didn’t even seem surprised; obviously, they’d watched this happen before when someone ran and cut themselves off from the planetary supply line. It was a plan of cruel beauty: the price of desertion from the Umbaran military was a slow, painful, horrific death brought on by their own rapidly fracturing brains._

_She’d served with Medic Vomer before at Ord Cestus; he’d seen his fair share of violence and gore. He’d chosen his name when he looked up the obscure bone he’d broken in a trainer’s face during a scrap. Barriss thought he had the strongest stomach of any medic she’d known, and he was currently emptying its contents into a bush while his squadmates watched helplessly._

_She closed her eyes to block out those sounds, as well as the tell-tale noises of yet_ another _soldier going into distress. “There are soldiers who turned off their_ oxygen supply _and_ asphyxiated _to avoid this, General Mara.” They’d also done it to preserve the rapidly dwindling resource, giving their lives so that their fellows could live. She’d tried to wean the remaining soldiers off the gas slowly, but their tanks had been low even when they surrendered, and she and her men had a very restricted number of stimulant hyposprays specifically to prevent this level of addiction. But there had to be more at the depot Tutso had just captured, or how would they otherwise be able to distribute their_ fix _to the soldiers?_

_The boy who had taught her to hold a lightsaber had somehow grown into this cold, unfeeling man at the other end of the commlink, and she was not sure how. “They knew the risks when they joined this army.”_

_“They were conscripted! They were_ forced _to breathe this poison that their own government was piping into their_ suits! _”_

_“General Offee, you are growing hysterical.”_

_“Dammit, Tutso, these are_ your _people, and they’re_ dying! _I need those stimulants_ now! _”_

_“_ General Offee _!_ I _am the ranking officer on this mission, and you are being_ grossly _insubordinate! Your request is_ denied. _” And, without any further insult, he cut the channel._

_Barriss shook her head, too stunned to feel anything other than peeved and vaguely sick. She knew better than anyone the sort of censure Tutso had received when his planet of origin defected during the war; she and Luminara had had to fight to retain the public’s trust. But did he really think this was how a Jedi proved their loyalty?_

_There were screams at the other end of the encampment. Barriss closed her eyes to brace herself for the inevitable._

***

She awoke with a flinch, trying not to panic at the stench of sulfur which filled her nostrils. Umbara had smelled deceptively clean; this was Florrum.

Right. She was on Florrum now. And, judging by the way the light slanted, it was nearing midday.

She examined the gurney in front of her, an ingrained habit to get her bearings after many long shifts sleeping in odd poses at a patient’s bedside. Maul’s vitals were normal, he seemed comfortable enough to purr softly at each exhale, and two high-arched red feet stuck out from under the medbay sheet, twitching slightly at some dream. Good, she wouldn’t have to check his reflexes. Slowly, so as not to disturb him, she unfurled the sheet to cover them; instinct was ingrained, and when blood pressure was lowered during sleep, the body wanted some form of insurance that it wouldn’t die of hypothermia, even on a hot planet such as this one. She scanned the newly-grown half-body with the hand-scanner; no nano-droids reported as being functional. They would be harmlessly excreted from his system, one way or another, within two days.

The operation was a success, and she’d even managed to get a square six hours of sleep on top of it. So why was she still so tired?

She found Savage in the process of deep-cleaning the cargo bay, muttering and cussing under his breath. “That little _shit_ thinks the entire world is its vac tube,” he growled as she approached. “When I get out of here, I’m gonna _find_ that ugly rodder and I am going to _roast it alive…_ ”

“Not alive. You’ll have to disembowel it first; monkey-lizards tend to be riddled with parasites.”

He smirked up at her. “Where I come from, that’s called extra protein.”

She rolled her eyes. “You and Maul are definitely related.”

“Is he all right?”

“He’s whole, at least physically. Everything else will take time.”

Savage sat up from scrubbing the floor; he could look her in the eye when he was on his knees. “Are _you_ all right?”

“I will be.” _If_ she could persuade her brain to take a nap without returning to Umbara; sleeping in the open and feeling exposed tended to awaken these sorts of flashbacks.

Savage didn’t look like he believed her. He got to his feet and headed toward the kitchen. “Well, you just woke up, so sleeping is probably off the table. Ohnaka was _kind_ enough to leave us most of our basic food supplies; he took all the tea, though. I’m sorry.”

“Figures. Tea is expensive; he probably wants to sell it.”

“He took the hot chocolate too.”

“The barbarian.”

The refectory was _disgusting_ , so eating there was out of the question. Savage still found a few cans of a light broth which they could heat over a fire. “I’m guessing he’s not going to be able to process anything more solid than this,” Savage said.

“You’ve done this before.”

“Nursed someone back to health after they’ve been tortured and starved? I wish I could say you were wrong.”

Right; Savage had terrible memories that he needed to process as well. “I’m glad for your experience,” she said after a moment. “Truly. I don’t know if I could have done this by myself.”

He patted her head. “I _know_ I couldn’t have done it alone.”

When he had her seated in front of a fire, wrapped in a clean blanket, and sipping a cup of broth, Savage broke the news that he’d decided to leave on a hunting trip soon. “You’ve got this well in hand, and we’re going to need to eat some fresh meat. I’m thinking one of those skalder things would do the trick.”

“They’re hard to kill.”

“Good. So am I.”

She studied his face. “You’re distancing yourself, though. Why? I had thought we were all finally getting along.”

He smiled ruefully. “Well, _you’re_ getting along with the both of us individually, and we brothers are getting along with each other. But, well, when all of us are together, or when it’s just you and me talking, I think Maul gets a little jealous.”

Barriss Offee was a _lady_. She did _not_ spit soup into the air when she was surprised. She put her bowl back to her lips and released the liquid quietly so she did not aspirate it in her shock. “ _Jealous_? But there’s no way he could know that I Claimed…”

“It’s not necessarily that he’s jealous of _you_ ,” Savage took a sip from his own cup, visibly trying to find the words to describe his thought process. “His hearts remember many things that his brain will not. Like the fact that he had a twin, from whom he was separated at birth.”

“You know that for certain?”

“Truthfully, I’ve suspected it for years. Feral was weepy and clingy when he was first introduced to me; he was used to having a connection with a littermate, and I was the closest thing he had to one of those.” Savage’s eyes grew distant with memory. “And when he was…I think nineteen in Galactic Standard years, but Dathomir’s weird that way, so I could be wrong. When he was _around_ nineteen, he woke one night screaming, and told me about a dream in which he had been cut in half and left to die.”

Barriss nodded. “There is a pair of twin sisters in the Order, Masters both of them. That sounds very much like an experience they’ve had.”

“So you know the sort of misery they’d have gone through if they were taken away from each other at a young age.”

“Yes. That’s why they’ve been allowed to remain close; severing a bond like that would lead them more quickly into the darkness.” The realization struck her almost as soon as the words left her mouth. “ _That’s_ why Maul was stolen, wasn’t it?”

“I do not presume to know the minds of Sith Lords,” Savage said. “But, I do know that Feral held on to me more strongly because he was afraid of losing someone else that he loved. Maul would have done the same thing, only there was but one person available for him to become attached to.”

“Your father.”

“The rat-bastard.” Savage clenched one massive fist, then sighed. “Feral is…not here. Maul most likely felt that too, even in the madness. So he’s going to clutch tightly at anyone he likes. The problem _is_ , he likes _both_ of us, and he’s been raised in the Rule of Two.” Those last three words he spat like a curse. “He probably doesn’t even know what to do with himself. He’s never had more than one friend before.”

“So he sees us together, even with him around, and fears he might be left behind.”

“Exactly.”

“And how is your leaving supposed to help that?”

“By showing him that I will come back, and that you will stay.” Savage smiled again. “When we’re on a planet where the locals _don’t_ intend to sell you, we can have _you_ leave and _me_ stay. Baby steps.”

“Baby steps,” she repeated. “When will you be leaving?”

“As soon as it gets dark.”

“May the Force be with you.”

He blinked, touched. “Thank you. I think I might need it.”

***

The face which appeared in the bounty poster glared at Asajj Ventress, and she at it. She was not surprised that Savage Opress had survived the slaughter of their people; the coward had run from them right when Dooku lusted hardest for vengeance. Of course the traitor had been several systems away from Dathomir when she burned.

“Mm, he’s hot,” crooned the Theelin woman who sat across from her. “What’s he wanted for? I’ll pay them double just to keep him.”

“Latts, are you in heat or something? He’s had two horns cut off and his nose broken in seven different places.”

“Zabrak-Theelin hybrids have very low instances of infant mortality. I gotta do my part to continue the species.”

“He’s Dathomirian.”

“Oh, like you? That’s not exactly convincing me not to try for him.”

Asajj rolled her eyes. “He’s wanted in the Outer Rim for grand theft aero and attempted murder.”

“Yum, a macho man.”

“ _Latts_.”

“What?”

“Wanted posters are _not_ dating profiles!”

“No, they’re better! You know how many dates I’ve gotten from a dating holo-site? Zip, that’s what. Do you know how many jobs I’ve gone after that turned _into_ dates? A _lot_.”

“Latts, I _know_ this person. Trust me when I say you _don’t_ want to cross him.”

The pink-skinned woman leaned closer to her, grinning laschiviously. “You’ve been with him, haven’t you?”

Oh, good grief. “Absolutely not.”

“Was he good?”

“I wouldn’t know, because the last thing I wanted was to do anything of the sort with him.”

“I don’t ~believe~ you,” Latts sang. “Does he like kids?”

“Latts, I _worked with him_. He betrayed my _people_ to _extinction_.”

_That_ shut Latts up. She hadn’t been kidding about needing to continue the species; Theelin had, in recent years, developed a mutation which caused sudden infant death, particularly in pure Theelin children. Latts Razzi was facing down being one of the last of her race. Extinction was not a joke to her, even though almost everything else was.

“Where does it say he is?” she asked quietly. “And can I come with you? You look like you need a friend.”

“I could use the backup,” Asajj said. “He was last seen running away from some planet in the middle of nowhere. _But_ , I think I can work a little _magic_ to help us find him…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, my dear Jinx Syndulla...yes, THAT family of Syndullas, and yes, his name IS Jacen. One of these days I'll have to write out your backstory, my darling, but for now? I'm having you guest star.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Hondo finally gets to be on camera! And in less popular news, Asajj and Latts track Savage to Florrum, and meet with an unexpected amount of competent resistance.

“I’ve been informed that you can tell me where this man is.”

Hondo Ohnaka pretended to be more nearsighted than he was and inched a little too close to the bounty puck. “Savage… _Opress_ , huh? He didn’t tell me he had a last name.”

Asajj pulled the puck away from the Weequay’s prying fingers. “He probably realized that desertion meant he forfeited the right to use it. We _earn_ our surnames in my culture.”

“I suppose that’s better than naming every child after the model of freighter in which they were conceived. My mother had a terrible time singling out which Hondo to yell at.”

Latts gagged, and Asajj allowed herself one cathartic eye-twitch. “Just tell us where he is, and I’ll give you the salvage rights for his vehicle.”

“There’s nothing _left_ to salvage in that vehicle. It barely suits as a monkey-lizard outhouse, doesn’t it my sweet baby? Those nasty mean men were so _rude_ to you…”

“Just give us the coordinates!”

The monkey lizard leaped to safety on a perch hung near the ceiling, but Ohnaka didn’t even glance at the lightsaber blade near his neck. His pirates seemed to materialize from the walls, armed to the teeth, every blaster muzzle pointed at one member of the bounty hunter duo.

“You, young lady, are _very_ lucky that your elegant legs and bald head remind me of my ex-girlfriend. I’ll take two percent of the bounty to order my men not to kill you, and three percent for the coordinates.”

“Done,” Asajj growled. “Now where is the Zabrak?”

“I think you mean where _are_ the Zabrak…there are two!”

***

Just a little after sundown, Maul awoke to find that every tube had been removed from his arms, the wounds they left covered with tiny bandages. The ever-present ache he had felt for the past dozen years was gone, replaced with a slight chill when a breeze flowed against the sheet that covered his unclothed legs.

His _legs_ …just the word filled him with vigor. All this time he’d only felt phantom pains where his legs _should_ be, mocking him for the failure with which he’d had to live since… _Kenobi_.

He jerked his body upright at the mere thought of the man’s name, and was rewarded with a stabbing pain in his midsection. _Right_ , what had the Doctor said? His new-grown muscles would not immediately cooperate? Well, they would listen if he _made_ them listen.

There was a set of clean clothes set on the chair where Savage had sat during the procedure. Slowly, Maul swung his legs to hang over the gurney, only to be tugged in an uncomfortable spot. Of course there was still one tube remaining, one last vestige of his fragility. Maul gritted his teeth and yanked the catheter out; the resulting pain was _nothing_ like what he’d been able to live through, but it fueled his anger enough to enable him to put on the soft, elastic-waist pants, one painstaking leg at a time. The shirt, socks, and shoes he left on the chair – it was a warm night, and he intended to work up a sweat.

He was greatly tempted to push the gurney in front of him as a make-shift walker, but he knew from experience how dicey hover-tech could be when used in such a way. Instead, he forced himself to stand as upright as possible, pushing against the ground with the Force when it seemed he would fall. He made it to the entrance of the tent this way before he almost fell backwards to the ground when another person nearly collided with him. Maul snarled, bracing himself to face the challenger. 

Six centimeters from his face, Doctor Offee sighed. “I don’t suppose I’m going to persuade you to take it easy, am I?”

“I did not survive for this long by ‘taking it easy’, Doctor.”

“Can I at least offer my help? If you tear a muscle, it means more work on my part.”

“…Very well.”

Without waiting for him to change his mind, she swiveled underneath his left arm, settling it across her shoulders. Her right hand firmly clasped his waist, and she slowly lifted him with her legs, letting his feet continue to touch the ground and his right hand dangle for balance.

“You’re stronger than you look,” he said as they walked in this way toward the fire.

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” she replied. “Are you hungry?”

“For _vengeance_.” A loud gurgle echoed from his perfidious stomach, punctuating his statement in a way he had _not_ intended.

She smiled. “I can tell, but there’s some broth ready for you instead. Vengeance might be just a little too much to digest at the moment.”

“Do you have a smart little retort for everything I say?”

“Would you rather I have a stupid retort?”

“Minx.”

“Brat.” She bent her knees to support his weight as he sat beside the fire, then pulled over a cup of soup which had apparently already been prepared.

“You were expecting me to be awake at this time.”

“Were the clothes not evidence enough of that?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Where is Savage?”

“He’s hunting for skalder; a little unprocessed meat ought to do you some good.”

“So _you_ were preparing to _dress_ me, _yourself_.”

Like a good little Jedi, she took a deep breath to dampen the spike of irritation Maul could sense from his vantage point. “I have helped many patients dress after such injuries.”

“You have helped the _same_ patient many different times. I am no clone.”

“Technically, you are half a clone of yourself.”

Oho, this woman thought she had _all_ the answers, didn’t she? “Isn’t that veil supposed to guard your modesty?” he asked, stepping around her logic. “I’d think you’d be more reluctant to disturb my privacy, with your religious traditions.”

“That’s actually a common misconception,” Barriss replied, ladling some soup into her own cup. “Mirialans have chlorophyll in our cells in place of melanin; it allows us to photosynthesize in order to supplement our nutrition when there is little food to eat. For those of us from polar cultures, the veil is symbolic of a devotion to temperance, especially when we travel away from our homeworld. There are feast days and certain mitigating circumstances when we’re encouraged to bare our heads.”

“What sort of mitigating circumstances?”

“Advanced age, age younger than puberty, illness, injury, or pregnancy,” she rattled off, counting on her fingers.

This was…interesting. He’d never had the opportunity to really learn about Mirialans; all his studies growing up simply said their vital organs were in the same place as common humans. “But are there not severe strictures on sexual activity before marriage?”

“Before marriage, and during certain periods of fasting, sexual _activity_ is strictly forbidden. However, providing medical aid is a basic form of sapient charity, which is encouraged at all times, even when it involves certain organs.” She sipped from her cup, slyly avoiding his warming face. “You needn’t be so concerned with defending my virtue.”

“I’m _not_ ,” he rolled his eyes. “I’m defending _mine_. Women from my culture tend not to ask permission.”

She deflated a little. “Oh, that’s right. I apologize. I should have thought of that.”

He tilted his head to stare pityingly at her. “That’s _it_? I’d have thought you would at least defend yourself.”

She shrugged. “I was wrong.”

“So? Even if you were, you could at _least_ continue to fight instead of just _giving up_.”

“There’s no shame in admitting I’m wrong,” she demurred. “And I have a feeling that there are many more important battles I’ll have to fight with you. I might as well save my energy for those.”

He scoffed. “ _Jedi_.”

“ _Former_ Jedi. And…” Barriss broke off, gazing vacantly into her cup as she sensed their immediate surroundings. “Do you feel that?”

Maul closed his eyes and stilled his breathing. There were two presences approaching their campsite on foot; one was non-Force sensitive, but the other was dark, in a way that felt _encouragingly_ like home.

He sensed Barriss flick her wrist in his direction; when he held up his hand, what remained of his lightsaber landed in his open palm. Barriss stood in a ready stance, holding her lightsaber close to the folds of her dress in a way that made her appear unarmed.

“Who goes theaAAAAH…?” She was hit mid-sentence by a sort of whip made of interlocking sea-green scales – a traditional Theelin battle-boa, if Maul’s training with rare weapons was not mistaken. Barriss was knocked off her feet with her arms bound tightly to her sides, landing hard on her back.

“Oh, _dear_ ,” murmured the dark presence. “I hope we haven’t disturbed anything.”

Maul wanted to rest one foot on the log where he sat and casually hug the knee against his chest; the Witch who sashayed into the firelight seemed like she could be as _theatrical_ as he. Alas, his abdominal muscles were, as yet, too sore to allow such an affectation. Instead, he spread his legs, letting his right arm with its lightsaber hang between them, and rested his chin nonchalantly against his left fist, bracing his left elbow on his knee. “Only an educational conversation. I’m sure you will not be so impolite as to irreparably harm my companion; we can always continue at a later date.”

“Such manners,” the Witch crooned as her Theelin companion reeled herself closer to Barriss. “I’m sure you will be gracious enough to tell me what I want to know.”

“It depends on what you’re asking.”

The curved contraptions in each hand turned out to be lightsaber hilts; Maul raised an eyebrow when a red blade appeared at the right side of his throat. “Savage Opress,” the Witch hissed. “Where is he?”

The _rage_ he felt when she dared pronounce his brother’s name could not be hidden, so Maul did not try to hide it. “What business is it of yours?”

“Answer the _question_ , slave.”

He snorted. “I’m no _slave_ , Witch. You’ll find my chains have been broken.”

Her icy eyes narrowed. “A _Sith…_ ”

“OOF!”

Maul looked over to see that Barriss had dealt a solid two-foot kick to the Theelin’s midsection, sending her flying backwards. In a flurry of pearlescent scales and dark skirts, Barriss flipped to her feet, a blue blade igniting to cut through her bonds.

He took the opportunity to Force-grab the hand holding the lightsaber to his throat, twisting it in order to disarm the Witch, then dragging her nose into his waiting elbow. She screamed, and lit the other lightsaber to strike him; his blade connected with hers, and they glared at each other over the intersecting red beams.

“Get… _off_ of him!” A foot connected with the Witch’s right temple, pushing her onto her behind in the yellow Florrum dirt. Barriss moved to stand over him in a modified Form III opening stance, her lightsaber in the challenging left hand and one half of the battle-boa in her rear, dominant hand.

The Witch tried to scrabble into a standing position, but Barriss ensnared her feet with the boa and pulled. The Witch’s head hit hard against the ground; she was still conscious, but only for long enough for Barriss to flip the distance between them and smack her head into the ground again with one knee.

Simaltaneously, Maul’s and Barriss’s heads snapped toward their one remaining opponent. The Theelin stood aghast for one moment, before dropping the other half of her weapon and raising her hands above her head.

“It’s okay, I won’t resist. I wasn’t expecting more than one shiny sword on this job.”

***

“You’re certain you’re all right?”

“Barriss, _you_ are the one who got hurt, not I. Leave it be.”

“I can afford a few bruises. We _just_ got you on your feet.”

From where they hung on the freighter’s wing, lashed together with the battle-boa and hung until their feet dangled, Latts somehow managed a smile. “They’re already fighting like an old married couple! Isn’t that cute?”

For once, Asajj wasn’t the only one who wanted to strangle Latts Razzi. The _scowl_ the little Mirialan girl sent her way from her place by the fire could have turned sand into glass. “Do _not_ even joke about such a thing.”

The Nightbrother whose name Asajj did not know shot his companion a perplexed face. “I thought you weren’t a Jedi anymore? What’s stopping you from getting married?”

“Ethical imperative. You are my _patient_ , not my romantic partner.”

“True, but I won’t be your patient forever.”

“Maul, _stop_. You are not as funny as you think you are.”

For the first time since she had woken to the _outraged_ Mirialan healing her concussion, Asajj decided it was safe to speak. “Maul, huh? As in _Darth_ Maul? The idiot Kenobi cut in half a dozen years ago?”

The Nightbrother smiled toothily, murder in his Sith-yellow eyes. “ _Why_ is this woman still alive?”

“Her name is Asajj Ventress, of _your_ tribe of Nightsisters,” Barriss Offee replied, fiddling angrily with the tracking fob and bounty puck Latts had so _generously_ given her. “And she is going to tell us what she intends to do with Savage.”

“I’d think that would be obvious. She’s resorted to bounty hunting after she and her sisters tried and failed to repel an army of _droids_.”

“No, Maul, you don’t understand,” the former Jedi _youngling_ said, kneeling next to him to get on eye-level. “Asajj Ventress chose your brother as a mate, not long ago. She used her Claim over him to sell him to Dooku, so that the both of them could kill him. Only, Savage somehow escaped from her.”

Asajj snarled – what did this little Jedi drop-out know? “He _betrayed_ me!”

“You _used_ him, and he _ran_.”

The Nightbrother glared up at her. “And now you’ve come to destroy his life _again_.”

“Completely, this time,” Asajj acknowledged. “I intend to stop the monster I created.”

The Sith laughed crazily. “Imagine _that_ , Barriss. She thinks _Savage_ is the monster here.”

“It’s _true_. I witnessed him kill his own brother without a single ounce of regret.”

The atmosphere went deadly cold in the space of an instant. “He…killed Feral?” the girl asked, eyes wide.

Her companion frowned at her. “That was his name?”

She clenched her fists and marched up to where Asajj and Latts hung. “Savage _loved_ Feral more than his own life. _Why_ would he kill him?”

Asajj smiled down – she had the girl where she wanted her, where her convalescent friend could not help or hinder her. “Because he was _weak_ ,” she said, over-pronouncing the ‘k’ sound to twist the knife. “He said so himself.”

The girl searched her eyes, finding no lie; then, her deep blue eyes hardened. “Who ordered him to kill Feral?”

How did she know about that? “What do you mean?” Asajj asked out loud to hide her confusion.

The ex-Jedi ground her teeth loud enough that her companion heard her and tried pathetically to stand. “One who has Claimed a Nightbrother has ways of ordering him to do her will. Is that not true?”

“ _How do you know about that?_ ”

One green fist slammed into her jaw, and the world spun as the boa twisted.

“Hey, yo, STOP!” Latts yelled. “Can you please _not_ spin me around again? I’ll grant that that sort of thing is _really karked up_ , but _I_ had nothing to do with it, so please, _don’t_ hit her again! Please?”

“Barriss, _stop_.” The Nightbrother glowered from his place by the fire. “This is not your revenge.”

The Mirialan took a deep breath, tears of anger running down her face. “You’re right,” she said, retreating from the prisoners. “Savage should be back at any hour.”

“That’s right. Now, I believe I should take first watch.”

After a moment, she nodded in response. “Two hours, no more. I don’t need to recover as much as you do.”

“Two hours,” he agreed.

She lay down by the fire with a blanket covering her, while the Nightbrother sat placidly back to watch the prisoners. Asajj tolerated his gaze with a shudder; she had a feeling it was going to be a _very_ long night.

***

The skalder was massively heavy, but Savage was stubborn. He butchered the carcass and dragged his spoils back in the skin of the creature, one step at a time. He would be crunching on marrow-filled bones today; it had been a while.

When he arrived back, however, he found the camp in disarray. Maul was awake, no surprise, and nodded congenially to Savage, which _was_ a surprise. Poor Barriss was furious; she stoked the fire with a violence he had not thought her inclined toward.

And hanging from the wing of the ship were two women, one pink-skinned Theelin with purple spots and orange hair, and one…whom he knew quite well indeed.

Savage set down his quarry and folded his arms. “What’d I miss?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Savage is just Done, Ventress and Razzi strike a bargain, Barriss adds Dathomirian Divorce Lawyer to her repertoire, and for whatever reason they let Maul drive.

The arrival of the bounty hunters sped up the unlikely trio’s timeline considerably; originally the plan had been to remain on Florrum for a few weeks for Maul’s convalescence before they went anywhere else. However, now two well-known people – a former Confederate general and a well-networked huntress working on starting a guild of her own – were currently bound back-to-back around their middles, with their hands tied to each other’s hands to (hopefully) make escape harder. If they did not return, people would notice, and Hondo Ohnaka would be more than willing to tell those people that Asajj Ventress and Latts Razzi were last seen chasing after Savage Opress; killing them would double the price on his head. If they _did_ return, they could tell the hunters’ guilds that Opress was last seen in the company of a Mirialan physician, which would _triple_ the number of people hunting them.

So, after Barriss found some cloth swabs to stuff in the prisoners’ ears and spare bandages to blindfold them, the three fugitives spoke in murmurs next to the fire, debating their next move.

Maul boggled at Savage when he stated he was soundly _against_ killing them. “I’d have thought you’d want your revenge against Ventress at least.”

“I _got_ my revenge against her when I ran out on her _and_ Dooku.”

“But, she made you kill your _brother_ ,” Barriss said cautiously – not to convince him, he could tell, but to be assured of his intentions.

“And my brother is dead, and nothing I do to her is going to bring him back.”

“She’s not going to repay your _mercy_ with gratitude, Savage,” Maul spat.

“It is a good thing I don’t want her paltry gratitude then, or anything of hers, really. I just want her to leave me alone. Can we ask her what it would take to do that?”

Barriss examined the bounty puck with a frown. “This price is nuna feed for two bounty hunters trying to make a name for themselves in the guilds. Ventress came here for personal reasons; I doubt her silence can be bought. She’ll just hurt you as much as she can if you give her the chance. Razzi, however…”

***

An hour later, the hulking brute of a Nightbrother threw the prisoners over one shoulder and hauled them into the ship, setting them on the floor none too gently. From the smell, Asajj could tell that they were not far away from the carcass of his recent kill. His heavy footsteps thumped gradually away from them, and Asajj heard the cargo bay doors close and the ship power on in preparation for flight.

She did not sense the Mirialan girl until the blindfolds and the ear plugs were removed. The girl examined them both in turn with cold blue eyes, allowing them to perceive Savage at the back wall of the near empty bay.

Asajj rolled her eyes at her captor’s obvious attempt at melodrama. “Get on with it, girl. We haven’t got all day.”

She was rewarded with an annoyed glare. “I’m a year younger than you, but you know that. And you also know that I _was_ a fully-trained Jedi Healer, with access to cutting-edge Republic technology such as this.” She held up a tube of yellow gel as a visual example. “This tube contains roughly one million nano-droids, which are capable of being programmed to administer medical treatment at DNA level. _Very_ expensive, and _quite_ valuable to someone who is willing to make a lot of credits _very_ quickly…”

“I’m not here for the credits, _little girl._ ”

“I am,” Latts interjected.

“ _Latts_.”

“I’ll be real with you, Asajj. _You_ could probably get out of this alive, but _I_ won’t unless I’m willing to compromise. And this is an _excellent_ compensation for the fuel and effort I put in to get you here.” Latts raised an eyebrow at the Jedi girl. “Now, when you say at DNA level, do you mean it can be used to _fix_ DNA? Like, say, with a mutation?”

“Yes.”

Latts ground her teeth. “So you mean the Republic was experimenting with something that can save my species from _going extinct_ , but didn’t deign to _tell us_ that information? Even when we petitioned the Senate for their help, _three times_?”

The Mirialan let out one bitter little half-smile. “ _I_ developed this technology with several different uses in mind; the Theelin Mutation was one of those. And we were no longer experimenting; sapient trials had been completed with no great setback. It was just considered too expensive to market to anyone but the upper echelons of the likes of the Banking Clan or the Techno Union.”

Asajj glanced at Latts, only to find her friend looking at her for confirmation. “You… _are_ a Jedi, aren’t you?” Asajj asked.

“Was, I _was_ a Jedi. I’m pretty sure I’ve said as much within your earshot.” The Mirialan twirled the tube in her fingers. “I’m willing to give you this and nine other tubes of the nanotech, in return for both of your silence. We will deliver you to your ship, you will fly away and do whatever you like with the nano-droids, and, if you like, I can give you the locations of several other facilities which possess the droids. All you’d need is somebody who is capable of programming them to the specifications you would need.”

“I know a guy,” Latts said.

“You aren’t _really_ …”

“Do you have any better ideas? It’s either this or they kill us.”

“ _Latts_.”

“ _Asajj_. This isn’t just a chance to save my _people_. This is a chance to make it big. You know I’ve been trying to go solo; I could start my own guild with this, and _you’d_ be the first person I’d hire. This is a big deal.”

Asajj blinked; she hadn’t thought that Latts would still want to associate with her, knowing her past. “You’d really…keep me on?”

“ _Duh_ , Sajj. You _know_ I’ve been trying to set up a network of female bounty hunters, just to help us girls get a leg up in the business. I’d be an _idiot_ not to keep you.” Latts smiled at the Mirialan girl. “I accept your terms. Our ship is in Ohnaka’s ship yard; drop us there, and we’ll handle the rest.”

“You hear that, Brother?”

In answer, the ship lurched, presumably headed to the given coordinates.

The Mirialan nodded, reaching into her pockets. “I have one more requirement, before you go.” Asajj flinched as the tip of the girl’s blue lightsaber appeared under her nose. “Renounce your Claim on Savage Opress.”

“ _What?_ ”

“You heard me. Say it out loud: you renounce your Claim on Savage Opress, and he is no longer your mate or your slave. He is his own man and free to do what he wills.”

Asajj sneered. “Got yourself a crush, girly?”

“More like a respect for sapient life. _Renounce him_ , or you will not be joining your friend on the ride back.”

The last Nightsister looked at her ally out of the corner of her eye. “Latts…”

“Hey, I’m completely okay with a guy that attractive becoming single again…especially since you’re not doing anything with him _…_ ”

Asajj rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

“Fine _what?_ ”

“ _Fine_ , I, Asajj Ventress, renounce my claim on Savage… _Opress_.” Asajj tried not to bite her tongue; she had _given_ him that name, and he had rewarded her by kicking her in the teeth. “He is no longer my apprentice, my servant, or my mate. He is his own man, and free to do what he wills.”

The Jedi smiled, and turned to the Nightbrother, who nodded dully. Then his eyes rolled up, and he fainted clear away.

“ _Savage!_ ” The Mirialan girl switched off her lightsaber and bolted to her companion’s side.

Asajj and Latts exchanged a glance. “She’s totally doing him,” Asajj said softly.

Latts shrugged. “I’ve got a shot of whisky on the red dude.”

“You just want the big one for yourself.”

“I haven’t made it as far as I have in the profession I’ve chosen by eschewing ulterior motives.”

“… _Fine_. I’ll take you up on your bet.”

***

The drop-off went as smoothly as could be expected. The huntresses, given the nano-droids and information on where to get _more_ nano-droids, hit the ground and ran toward their ship, while Maul took off toward the atmosphere before any of Ohnaka’s pirates got the bright idea of trying for Savage’s bounty themselves. He set hyperspace coordinates for the destination he had in mind and pushed the ship into a jump; then, he eased himself out of the pilot’s chair, and, propelling himself using mostly his upper body strength and the Force, hauled his body toward the medbay.

Savage’s head lay on the pillow of the bed, but his legs dangled off the end so that his feet rested almost completely on the ground. From where she stood, hard at work around his brother’s face, Barriss spared Maul a petulant sigh as he heaved himself into her view.

“You could have asked for my help.”

“You were busy, and I can get around on my own.”

She shook her head, eyelashes quivering. “You two are the most stubborn patients I’ve ever had to deal with, and I’ve worked with…certain Jedi Masters who refuse to sleep _or_ acknowledge their alcoholism.” Before Maul could ask what name she had been about to say, she pivoted gently on to Savage’s condition. “The poor man has so much tension in his neck and shoulders. We need to get him his own bed; he’s slept on the ground and in chairs for far too long.”

Maul was not entirely sure what to make of her assertion. His training told him he should discourage her from fretting about any patient aside from himself; if she was to become his apprentice, she needed to set away ties to anyone else. And yet, Savage was _also_ a potential apprentice, one who had been raised in the Dark and who would need to unlearn fewer bad Jedi habits, so it made sense for her to get him back into shape. They still liked each other far too much for his Sithly taste, but that still could not be helped; at this point in time, both of them were necessary if he was going to get anywhere with his plans.

That was what his _head_ told him. His gut, however, _wrenched_ just the tiniest bit when he saw the quiet focus in Barriss’s eyes, or the gentleness of her hands as she placed them on Savage’s chest and forehead. A part of him was… _extremely_ gratified to see her care so deeply for _his brother’s_ health, but a part of him wondered if she’d have any energy left for _him_. But, until he could tell which feeling was stronger, all he could do was watch as she worked; he hoped he would understand in time.

***

Savage’s mind was not nearly as torn up as Maul’s had been, or still was, for that matter. The ball of yarn Barriss had to untangle was not nearly as large or as tightly wound. Still, a lifetime lived in fear and in slavery had taken its toll on his sanity; poor Savage had a very high threshold for emotional pain, it seemed, because he’d always prioritized the needs of others over his own.

The event that had his brain so tied in knots was front and center, and Barriss gently began to pick at the threads that comprised it. She saw Ventress standing in front of ranks of Nightbrothers, and felt the protective anger that clenched Savage’s jaw as Ventress clutched _his brother’s_ face…so _that’s_ what Feral had looked like. She saw bits and pieces of a set of physical tests, and saw Feral collapse at Ventress’s hands…and Savage race to his fallen brother, and offer himself to be Chosen instead.

Then, the vision grew dark; he’d been led into a shadowy place, and placed into a hypnotic state of mind. He’d undergone a…she hesitated to call it a _procedure_ , because it was so painful even his repressed brain had vague, flickering memories of bones being elongated and of muscles and ligaments stretching to meet them. Finally, he’d been stood upon his feet, swaying unsteadily, his mind so violated and abused that he barely knew himself.

And Ventress’s voice had told him to _kill_.

He’d resisted; there was a firm slap against his face, but he barely felt it. The voice came again, with the razor-sharp edge of Force Persuasion leveled against his abuse-weakened mind.

_Kill him._

He’d heard his brother’s pleas, distantly, as if they were in a dream. He’d wanted to keep resisting, but the voice had _hurt him_ , and he just wanted to stop. “You are so _weak_ ,” he’d told himself as he complied. “ _Weak_.” But his brother’s neck had snapped under his touch, and it had felt like any other decision he’d made in a dream; the consequence would be gone come morning, and he’d forgotten all about it until one stray bolt of Dooku’s lightning had reignited his memory.

“So that’s why you left,” Barriss said, pulling out of his mind.

Savage slept peacefully, tears running down his sharp-boned cheeks. Absently, she wiped them away. “You are not weak, Savage Opress,” she murmured, with healing behind her words rather than persuasion. “You are anything but weak.”

Maul cleared his throat from across the table, and she bit the inside of her cheek to refrain from startling. “Just _what_ are you interrupting me for?”

There was the slightest trace of concern in the younger brother’s eyes, cunningly hidden by judgment. “You’re crying.”

Her hand flew to her face; he was right. “Of course I’m crying,” she said, rubbing the back of her hand against the moisture. “Mind healing has wounds as well; the tears disinfect those wounds so that they can heal faster.”

“But you are healing _Savage_. Why are _your_ wounds opening?”

He was _very astute_ for one who knew of nothing but death. Barriss found she could not answer him.

“I need to spend some time in the refresher,” she said at length. “Knock on the door if he awakens. _Use the Force_ to do so; I don’t want you hobbling around here without me.”

Why wouldn’t he stop _staring_? “Of course,” he called after her, as she hurried out of the room.

***

The water was so cold, even _she_ was shivering. She’d gotten too close, _again_. It came up with every performance review – she rejoiced just a little too much when her patients got better, and she was _crushed_ beneath the weight of her perceived failure when they _didn’t_. She’d lost count of how many times she’d heard that old proverb, ‘Doctor, heal _thyself_.” It had followed her through every post to which she’d been assigned; she’d never spent more than a few months on each position, in the hopes that she could be broken of this habit. Perversely, her tender heart had only learned to care _more_.

When she couldn’t stand the freezing water against her skin any longer, she pulled herself out of the borderline dissociative fit she was having, forcing herself to turn off the faucet. Once again, she examined her face in the mirror; Maul had seen her crying. If she did not recover, he was sure to pounce on that weakness. She _had_ to present a firm exterior, or she was _doomed_.

But a blotch on the skin of her chest caught her eye.

The singular diamond in the middle of her breastbone had grown into a diamond cluster. She’d obviously made progress in the accomplishment which merited that particular marking, whatever that might be. Mirialans in the traditional tribes from whence she and Luminara claimed ancestry simply _did not bare_ this part of their skin, so Barriss had no context as to what they would mean. And the significance of the placement of each mark was so _intensely_ sacred (not to mention _personal_ ) that Mirialans did not write such things down; the knowledge was shared in an extensive oral tradition, which was part of the reason Mirialan Jedi tried to take Mirialan Padawans whenever possible.

Only, Luminara had never _mentioned_ what a mark in this particular place could _mean_.

In all fairness, Barriss had never thought to ask ahead of time. She’d only brought up the topic whenever a mark appeared; she’d had far too much else on her mind to discuss things in detail with her Master. Now, she was dealing with something that was happening to her body, whether she liked it or not, in the company of two strange men ( _Dark-siders_ at that), and she had _no idea_ what was going on.

She breathed a steady sigh, and shuddered. She would get through this. She’d been making everything up as she went along for _much_ longer than she’d realized; somehow, she could muddy through this as well.

***

Maul was on the bridge when she got out of the shower, idly watching the lights of the stars wash by them in the eternal dance of hyperspace. She probably should have yelled at him for over-exerting himself, _again_ , but she was _tired_ beyond belief. That lecture could wait until morning.

“Where are we headed?” she asked. He’d set their heading while she was occupied with carrying Savage to the medbay; she half suspected him of engineering those circumstances deliberately so that neither of them would object to the destination. If he had not looked so _worried_ when his brother fainted, she would have suspected him completely.

He did not turn away from the window, deep in thought. “A planet recently acquired by the Commerce Guild…well, recently from my perspective. So much has changed since…”

The man _had_ to know the mesmerizing quality of his own voice, or otherwise he would not put so much effort into pronouncing his sibilant consonants. Barriss let Maul have his little moment so that she could adequately fight back the urge to scream.

“Which planet?” she asked, once she was reasonably certain of her own self-control.

He still did not turn towards her. “A _quiet_ planet, where the rest of the galaxy will leave us alone to _rest_ …”

Barriss wanted to tear her own headdress in frustration. “Maul,” she said, deceptively bright and cheery. “What is the planet’s _name_?”

“Oh, it’s known by a number of names.”

“The _official_ name,” she said through clenched teeth, before he could get back on his drama kick.

Finally, he turned around, a wicked grin on his face. “Oh, it’s a simple little name…”

_“Maul._ ”

“Korriban.”

Barriss _felt_ her right eye begin to twitch. “The _former Sith stronghold?_ ”

“If that pretender Dooku has an installation there, that would make it a _current_ Sith stronghold, yes?”

“Haven’t you spent _enough_ time eating yourself up in the Dark Side?”

“You say this as if your experience with the Jedi was any different?”

She set her jaw and _willed_ her hands not to clench into fists. “I’m beginning to think I should have thrown you out an airlock while you were still talking in nursery rhymes.”

He smirked, _infuriatingly_ pleased with himself. “But you didn’t, and so here we are.”

“So _help me_ , if I’m forced to deal with _any more ghosts_ …”

“ _I’ll_ deal with the ghosts. We’re just going to raid the Commerce Guild offices anyway. Not even they would be stupid enough to build on haunted ground…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heheheheheh


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Asajj sets off a chain of events that brings the GAR into the equation. There is a lot of fruitless searching, no little amount of flirting, and I shoehorn my favorite background gremlins in on the situation because I can.

When she and Latts got back to Tatooine, Asajj made a point of searching for Barriss Offee specifically.

“ _Sajj_.”

“What? There’s no harm in looking.”

“Yeah, but we _promised_.”

“We promised _silence_ , but there’s a chance they’ll be found out even without our help.”

“…True, but…”

“ _And_ , they could prove to be valuable allies in this guild you’re starting up…or powerful enemies, if we make the wrong step. Looking out for them might not be a bad idea.”

Latts sipped her drink, considering for a moment, and then inched closer to Asajj in the cantina table they were currently sharing. “So, what does the holonet say?”

“Well, there _were_ a number of bounties out on the girl,” she refrained from using the name out loud, first rule of business when drinking with other bounty hunters one didn’t know. “But, they were claimed by an anonymous party, who hasn’t claimed the reward just yet. This one from a Commander Gree of the GAR seems a bit put out that someone would do that.” She investigated _that_ banner further while Latts watched. “They’re offering a hundred credits just for information on where she went.” Tellingly, it was a clone officer going off book to do this with an obvious burner comm; the Jedi probably didn’t care any more about Offee any more than they’d cared about Ky.

Latts tilted her head, eying her friend dubiously. “ _Sajj_.”

“ _What?_ ”

“We _promised them_.”

“We promised not to tell anyone where they _are_.”

“That’s not what I heard…”

“Latts, we have no way of knowing where they are right now, and a hundred credits is a hundred credits.”

Latts tapped the glass against her teeth. “…Okay. But use _this_ burner comm,” she said, handing Asajj the tech in question. “Use a pseudonym.”

“I _got_ it.”

“And for pity’s sake, _don’t_ flirt with the clone.”

Asajj pouted. “But their accent is so _pretty_.”

“ _Don’t_.”

***

“I hope you appreciate what I had to go through to get this,” Gree said an hour later at Dex’s Diner, the agreed-upon neutral ground for the tiny conspiracy that had somehow sprouted from his personal mission. “The source was pretty tipsy and trying to initiate comm-sex.”

Of the two Padawans in this partnership, only Syndulla had managed to show up as requested – Tano was in an emergency Council meeting. The Twi’lek chewed quietly on a mouthful of bantha burger as he listened to the recording. “So, what do we do with this?” he said at last. “I could probably convince Liz to do some digging around Florrum, but another ‘extracurricular’ mission this soon after what happened on Trandosha is going to take a petition to the Council.”

Gree rolled his eyes. “And Commander Tano has a good relationship with two of the Council members. What are they _talking_ about, this late at night?”

“Who knows? It’s got to be important to be happening around dinnertime.” Jinx signaled for the check, paid for both meals with a generous tip, and shoved the rest of his burger in his mouth. “If I hurry, I might be able to catch her as she’s leaving.”

Gree followed his lead; the kid really didn’t like going anywhere by himself after dark, not that anyone who really thought about his situation could blame him. “I’ll hail a cab.”

“Thanks.”

***

The good news was that they did manage to catch Ahsoka by her personal dorm room. The bad news was that her Master and their legion’s Clone Captain were waiting for her outside, so there was no way to really talk to her alone, especially with the look on Skywalker’s face. “Can I help you, gentlemen?”

Jinx decided to take point on this one. “I just…wanted to consult with Ahsoka about my homework. She and Gree have been helping me with a report on xenobiology.”

“She might have to comm you later, then. We’re leaving, like, right now. You hear that, Snips?” Skywalker rapped against the door. “Hurry up!”

She opened the door at that precise moment, glaring. “I’m _ready_ , Skyguy, _Force_ …oh hey, Jinx.” She played casual pretty well, but her lekku tapped against her chest in Rylothean Standard Signage – Master Skywalker knew a bit of lekku-language, but only the dialects around Tatooine, which were considerably different. _You found something?_

“Hey, um…can we talk and walk?” _Gree got a response_. “If that’s all right with everyone…?”

“Sure!” Master Skywalker had an odd, smug little smirk on his face. “Come on, Rex, let the kids hang back a little.”

Rex rapidly glanced in befuddlement between Skywalker and Gree, who made some sort of clone sign that obviously didn’t put Rex’s mind anywhere _near_ at ease. “Yes sir,” he said slowly.

Master Skywalker grinned toothily and grabbed Rex’s pauldron, hauling him off in a friendly manner. “It’s _all right_ , Rex, let ‘em be.”

Jinx shot Ahsoka his own look of confusion. _What’s that about?_

She rolled her eyes, declined to answer, and began walking. “So, we were discussing the Mirial emigration issue?”

“Right, and how Florrum fits into everything.” _She was recently seen there, in the company of a known criminal._

Ahsoka’s eyes went wide. “Florrum _fits into_ this somehow?” _Which criminal?_

“Yeah, I was surprised too. Seems Florrum’s a good place to run these days.” _Some Zabrak named Savage Opress…do you know him?_

The blue stripes on her lekku blanched, and Skywalker frowned behind them, but Ahsoka did not falter in her step. “You should talk to Master Kenobi. He’s got some contacts out that way; he might be able to help.” _I only wish Skyguy and I could go with you…we’re stuck on Onderon, likely for weeks._

“I’ll ask him.” _Will he help?_

_Just tell him it’s Savage Opress, and he’ll drop everything. Trust me_. “I gotta go. May the Force be with you,” _and stay safe._

“And with you.” _Don’t worry about us_.

Ahsoka forced a smile onto her face, but her eyes and body language still spoke of worry; Jinx and Gree smiled and waved, and then the elevator closed.

Jinx turned almost immediately to Gree. “Master Kenobi.”

“Right behind you, sir.”

***

“That kid didn’t say anything inappropriate, did he Snips?”

Ahsoka blinked, breaking out of whatever thought she’d been lost in. “No, Master, he just reminded me of an essay I had due tomorrow. That’s okay, though; my teachers will accept late work when I’m on assignment.”

Anakin nodded, trying not to let her know how relieved he felt. She didn’t need to be treated rudely after the rough time she’d had with that little _poodoo_ Bonteri; it was a good thing Syndulla was more polite, or Anakin would have been forced to give him a little master-class on manners. Now he could save his energy for when he finally cornered Bonteri on Onderon.

After a moment, Rex decided to break the silence again. “Nice kid, that. Considerate.”

Ahsoka smiled. “He is.”

“Not bad-looking, either,” Anakin replied.

Ahsoka’s smile promptly died. “It’s _not like that._ ”

“Not like what, sir?”

“Whatever you consummate matchmakers think it is.”

The two men exchanged knowing grins. “How do _you_ know what we think it is?”

“We’re just glad to see you finding some companionship your age, sir.”

She growled. “If I didn’t have to have this conversation _every time_ someone my age so much as _looks_ at me, I might be persuaded to _really_ have some form of love life.”

“Mission accomplished, then. I can tell Obi-Wan that I actually _am_ a good Master, thank you…no smooching for you, young lady.”

“ _Skyguy!_ ”

***

Obi-Wan had been two sips into a very good cup of herbal tea when his door sounded with frantic knocks in the middle of the night. He answered to find Commander Gree and Twi’lek Padawan, a friend of Ahsoka’s whose name he could not remember. “Can I help you?”

Gree and the Padawan both nodded. “Do you know of a criminal named Savage Opress?” the Padawan asked.

Obi-Wan had been three sips into a very good cup of herbal tea before that question was asked, and he wasted his third sip by spitting it out over his shoulder.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’ sir. Can we come in?”

“Please, by all means,” Obi-Wan sputtered, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

The pair did a fairly quick job of explaining their situation; long story short, they’d been independently searching for the missing Jedi Knight, Barriss Offee, and someone had seen her in the company of Opress on Florrum. From what he’d learned of the Zabrak in their previous encounters, Obi-Wan had never thought him capable of kidnapping. But there had been a shadow growing in his mind, a specter of the past which he had long thought dead…Darth Maul was alive, somehow. He could _feel_ it, though he couldn’t quite explain how. And anyone who really _looked_ at Opress could see the family resemblance between him and Obi-Wan’s old nemesis.

Poor Barriss; what had she ever done to deserve the misfortune that threw her in with such villains?

“Thank you for the information. I shall depart to Florrum immediately.”

“Alone, sir?” Bless poor Gree; he seemed so concerned.

“No; I intend to wake Cody and take the 212th with me.”

“Can you take the 41st as well, sir? I’m sure General Unduli would be willing to provide the back-up.”

Obi-Wan knew almost as well as Gree did that Luminara would consider this a diversion from the real focus of the war, regardless of her undeniable feelings for her former Padawan. However…

“I’ll ask the Council to assign us together for this mission,” Yoda had felt the shadow as well, and would understand Obi-Wan’s motivation here, so the application process shouldn’t take as long as it usually did. “Wake her, but don’t tell her the part about Knight Offee.” They could always brief her when they arrived, and it was both too late and against the demands of her duty for her to back out.

“Sir.” Gree threw a smart salute, and then ran for Luminara’s quarters.

Obi-Wan spared a moment to study the Padawan who remained, looking him up and down. “Who is your Master, again?”

“Lissarkh.”

“Oh yes, I know her.” In his own Padawan days, she had gained some notoriety for somehow managing to sever her own toe, _eating it_ , and then continuing with lightsaber practice, waving the incident off with a casual ‘it’ll grow back’. “Has she recovered from her recent injury?”

“Not completely, but she’s rather tired of being cooped up in the Infirmary.”

“I imagine she is.” Lissarkh was a bane to Vokara Che’s existence, almost as much as Obi-Wan. “Do you think she’d appreciate being sprung early? I could probably use as much help as I can get.”

“If you phrased it like that in front of Healer Che, I’m sure she’d kiss you on the lips.”

***

Lissarkh did not, in fact, kiss Kenobi on the lips.

She kissed Che. In front of everyone. “See you next month, love?”

The blue Twi’lek turned several shades of purple, her lekku frozen and her mouth bobbing as the Trandoshan threw her bags over her shoulder and headed out the door. Only when Lissarkh was halfway down the hallway did Healer Che finally find her voice. “DO THAT AGAIN AND I’M DISMEMBERING YOU MYSELF!”

Lissarkh smiled at her apprentice. “She totally digs me.”

“One of these days she’s gonna knock out your teeth.”

“I hope not. Those _don’t_ grow back.”

***

Four days later, all four Jedi followed Hondo Ohnaka into his base. “So _many_ new friends!” the Weequay exclaimed rapturously. “Kenobi, you _spoil_ me.”

“It’s what our relationship deserves, Hondo,” Kenobi said. “Just remember: two legions of clone troopers know we’re here, and they’re waiting for our safe return.”

“There is _nothing_ like the tacit threat of getting bombed into oblivion to make a deal go smoothly!” the pirate replied without a trace of sarcasm, seating the Jedi at a table in his bar and flagging down the waiter. “Now, tell me what Hondo Ohnaka can do for you fine folks.”

The Trandoshan grinned toothily, laying her huge hand on the waiter’s shoulder when he arrived. “You can get us one fourth of Corellian whiskey out of a _new_ bottle. And if I smell _anything_ off about it, I’m going to eat at least one of you alive, possibly two.”

The waiter ran to do as she said, and Hondo stared at the reptilian Jedi. “They’ll let you _do_ that?”

Obi-Wan smirked, the Twi’lek kid chuckled, and the Mirialan smiled tightly in a way that indicated she was screaming internally.

Seeing as that was the only answer he was going to get, Hondo nodded slowly, impressed. Kenobi obviously learned from their previous encounters. “So, what can I do you for?”

“You haven’t enough money to afford me, Hondo,” Kenobi demurred. “However, you _can_ tell me all you know about this handsome fellow here.” He brought up a hologram of a very large, yellow Zabrak covered in black tattoos and armor. Hondo squinted at it for dramatic purposes; he knew perfectly well who he was looking at.

“Oh, _that_ guy! He and his brother came through here not a week ago. Nice enough, quiet, but they hated poor Pilf.”

Kenobi’s smile faltered just the tiniest bit. “His brother?”

“Yes! Skinny chap…looked like this guy, only red where he’s yellow. They said he got in some sort of accident in the labor yards on Felucia, though how a man managed to survive being cut in _half_ is beyond me.”

Kenobi’s face blanched; Hondo was no expert in human anatomy, but that _had_ to feel _weird_. “Are they still here?”

“No…the big one had some sort of bounty on him, and a couple of bounty hunters followed them here. They parted amicably enough, but the hunters owed me a portion of the bounty, and skipped town without paying the bill.”

“How thoughtless.”

“Hmmm.”

The waiter returned with the bottle of whiskey and five shot glasses on a platter, trembling as he set it before them, and rushing off without the least bit of professional integrity. Hondo sighed, and poured out the shots for his friends himself. “To…life?”

The Trandoshan flicked her tongue several times at her glass, and slowly blinked both pairs of eyelids at him. “This shit is watered down.”

“With the _finest_ water on Florrum!”

“Aha, I’m not drinking this.”

“Did you at least see where the Zabrak brothers went after they left?”

“They didn’t exactly leave me a map, Kenobi.”

The bearded Jedi flicked his eyes toward the Mirialan woman briefly. “Did you see anyone else with them?”

“No, and we were pretty thorough in gathering our toll.”

Kenobi nodded, thinking hard. “Who were the bounty hunters, then? They might have seen something you weren’t able to.”

Hondo grinned; he’d be getting his fees paid, one way or another. “Of course!”

***

The Theelin woman’s spots pulsated nervously when she saw Luminara. “It’s been a while, Master Jedi.”

“That it has, Ms. Razzi.” It had taken a week, four briefings, and the knowledge that Latts Razzi, a contact from her early days as a Knight, was involved in this whole mess to get Obi-Wan and Gree to be honest with her. Luminara would be having several conversations with them when this was all done; for now, she had a set goal in mind. “Have you seen my Padawan? I have reason to believe you have.”

Latts looked at the holo-photo, and cursed. “I have. But, I promised her my silence in return for my life.”

“It wasn’t you who reported seeing her?”

“No, it was…an associate of mine, whom I’m going to have a _very_ long talk with when they come back from their current bounty.”

Luminara nodded, taking the holo-projector back into her robes. “I understand that the men who kidnapped her are…unforgiving sorts, but I can promise your safety if you can tell me _anything_ about her current whereabouts.”

Latts studied her expression thoroughly. “I didn’t ask their location…your, uh, _Padawan_ had a lightsaber to my associate’s throat. I had to take _her_ deal, or she would have killed us.”

…That didn’t sound like Barriss at _all_. “They obviously put her up to it.”

“The red guy was limping around on her shoulders; they, uh, snarked a bit at each other, but she never put up a fight. And she was with him alone for at least a day, and never made a run for it, which she could have done easily.”

Luminara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “These men are _enemies_ of our Order, have been since we’ve known them.”

Latts cringed uncomfortably. “And the big guy fainted outright at one point, right in front of me. She, uh, checked his pulse, snapped her fingers in his face, and firefighter-carried him like he was a sack of potatoes. She never seemed at _all_ afraid in their presence.”

Luminara faded into the background of her own mind; Master Unduli ended the encounter kindly, leaving money so Latts could buy a drink for herself. Then, she left the cantina in a sort of dreamlike state.

_Oh Barriss…what have you done?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dammit Lissarkh, quit hitting on the medics or they'll hit you back.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is unprotected hand-holding that is criminally glossed over in favor of describing Magic Physical Therapy, Korriban is Kreepy, Savage has a few physical things wrong with him as well, and Maul Does Not Approve of Count Dooku (shocker I know).

Very few Jedi had ventured to Korriban in the past millennium; even after the Sith had been forced underground, archeological expeditions had a tendency to disappear, on this and on other stronghold worlds of the Sith. Just prior to the start of the war, a group of four Knights and their Padawans (including, to no one’s great surprise, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker) had somehow managed to divert their mission onto the planet. None of the survivors liked to talk about it, and Barriss had never had much use for the mission reports. She consoled herself with the knowledge that had she tried to cram any more information into her brain while trying to graduate from her medical program early, she _would_ have lost her mind by now…well, _more_ of her mind.

She could not bear to watch as Maul began the descent to that dark, deserted planet. So, she volunteered to talk to Savage instead. Someone had to warn the poor fellow of the danger he would meet upon landing.

He was still in the medbay, but he’d awoken by now, and moved to sit more comfortably upon the bed. He clutched the soft blanket with the cartoon tookas to his chest, with no apparent care for whether or not she saw him with it; perhaps the smell comforted him.

“Where are we?” he rumbled, the deep timbre of his voice hiding the quaver in his tone. “It feels like Dathomir, only…dead.”

She laid a hand on his, moving slowly and silently asking for and receiving permission before she touched him. “It is Korriban, the Tomb of the Sith.”

Savage’s eyes narrowed. “Have the Sith not abused Maul enough? Why would he take us there?”

“Well, you have to admit nobody would be crazy enough to follow us here.”

“Ventress might.”

“Savage, she has renounced her claim on you. She isn’t going to risk her skin following after us.”

The vessel, which had barely even shaken as it hit the dark planet’s atmosphere, alighted gently upon the ground; even Maul seemed to understand the need to tip-toe, as it were, and _that_ was a _really_ bad sign. Both Savage and Barriss stood restlessly, looked at one another, and gave a grim nod.

“Unto the breach it is, then,” Barriss muttered, striding toward the cockpit to give Maul her assistance.

***

Maul had not been this excited in _years_. His master had taken him to Korriban as a boy, so that he could truly appreciate the history of their Order. They’d walked the Valley of the Dark Lords together, and spent time in each vault which struck their fancy. A few shades had even argued with his Master, though none had even appeared to him; he’d thought that, once he was a proper Sith Lord, they’d consider a conversation with him worth their time.

Well, he was as proper a Lord as he was ever going to be at this point. He had two candidates for apprentices, after all. Perhaps the Sith would finally recognize him as one of their own.

He was going to enjoy walking amidst the tombs with his two companions. Barriss had probably never laid foot on Korriban, and Savage most certainly hadn’t even heard of it. It would be a joy to share this with them, to show them the majesty of a culture so unlike either of their own, to explain how their lives intersected with a great narrative which had started so many years ago. Perhaps the shades might even be persuaded to be polite, though that was probably much to ask.

However, he knew enough about the place to know that they were safer if they stayed shut up in the ship for now. Tuk’ata, shyracks, and k’lor’slugs roamed these wastes freely, and though they primarily preyed upon each other and would not disturb a metal ship, he needed to be able to run unassisted before they could venture outside. Thus, they would remain for now; they had enough stores to last for a few weeks.

He directed Barriss to bring him to the nearly empty cargo bay, and ordered Savage to follow them. Whilst they had nowhere else to go, he would begin to re-learn his fighting forms, and in the process he would get the measure of his two apprentice candidates.

Barriss watched dubiously as he shrugged off her assistance and tried to settle into a _juyo_ opening stance. He felt a little stiff, but not so bad; carefully, he moved to the next position in the form. Sharp pains ricocheted throughout his abdomen in protest, and he very nearly hit the floor before both Barriss and Savage lunged to catch him.

“Perhaps we should start with something simpler. You’ll need better balance before you can attempt something like this alone.”

“And what would you _suggest_ , Doctor?” Maul refrained from mentioning how he was taught to balance the first time round; he did not want to be thrown at a wall a hundred times, and Savage might just be able to do it.

“…Savage, stand him up.”

Maul was humiliatingly lifted by his armpits into a standing position. Barriss stood facing him at arm’s length, her feet aligned under her shoulders and her legs slightly bent. “Try to stand like this,” she said, “and hold my hands…like this.”

With narrowed eyes, he did as she instructed.

“Now, extend your right leg just the slightest bit behind you, like this, so you can prop your hands against mine.” When he had done so, she nodded over his head at Savage. “Let go of him.”

Without Savage’s hands to hold him, he was compelled to take more of his own weight onto his legs and core…or lean on Barriss’s hands, but she exerted the Force against him to prevent him from doing just that. He jiggled this way and that for a few seconds, before he realized the point of the exercise; Savage stood close, just in case he fell.

When they reached a sort of equilibrium, Barriss smiled at him. “I never thought I’d use push-feather in a medical context.”

Trembling with effort, he still managed to pull a face at her. “Push-feather?”

“You’ve never…well, I suppose you haven’t, have you.” She nudged at his back leg with the Force, moving it into a more stable position. “Full disclosure, it is a Jedi wrestling game.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think I’m going to go into hysterics every time you use the word Jedi?”

She blinked dryly.

“Emotion is my _strength_ , Doctor.” He winced a little, pushing against her hands with the Force to settle his weight onto his calf. “What is the objective of the game?”

“Normally, it is to push over your opponent. Our purpose is to hold you up.” He trembled, and she seemed to take that as a sign to do something different. “I am going to advance with my right leg. I want you to retreat with your left, _slowly_ , until it is behind you. Push against me to keep your balance.”

He did as he was bid, and they rested in the new position; different muscles were being worked now, giving the others some rest.

“We had a game like this back on Dathomir,” Savage said from beside them. “The boys learned it before they started with weapons training.”

“Really?” Barriss asked. “It’s about the same thing for our youngling crèches. Do you have a big competition for them?”

“Oh yeah, every summer; the cubs ten years and younger wrestle before the striplings spar with their spears, and then the adults show off the more dangerous weapons. It’s quite a production…it’d be more fun if the Witches didn’t watch our every move.”

“You must have been quite adept at the games, brother.”

“Well, I won a lot. But, to be fair, a lot of the prettier fellows let me win. Witches liked to snap up pretty Champions to make stronger and fairer babies; an ugly Champion took focus away from the better-looking contestants, and had a better chance of living to see another championship.”

“You are _not_ ugly.” Maul blinked; Barriss had said the same thing as him simaltaneously.

Out of the corner of Maul’s eye, Savage shrugged congenially. “Well…maybe not in the rest of the galaxy, but Witches have strange tastes in men.”

Barriss bit her lip and shook her head. “I’m going to advance again, Maul, just like last time.”

“What was it like for your youngling crèches?” Savage asked once they had settled again.

“Well, there were a lot of us, so they divided us by age, as your people did. There was the five- to eight-year-old division and the nine- to twelve-year-old division; we eliminated the contestant in each match, and set the winner up against the winner of a different match, and that went on until we had one champion in each division. The Knights and Masters would watch, and sometimes select certain contestants as Padawans.”

“Is that how you got your Master, by being impressive enough in a child’s game?”

Barriss tilted her head where she would have shrugged if her shoulders were not engaged against Maul’s. “A friend of mine was recruited by his Master that way,” there was a hint of shadow that lurked behind her studied nonchalance, but she did not acknowledge it. “I was recruited some time before the tournament which would have occurred in my ninth year, and as a Padawan, I was excluded from the crèche games. It was just as well; I was never particularly good at it.”

Before he could ask anything more, she was advancing again. This time, he felt the wall just out of reach of his heel.

“You’re not doing too badly from my perspective.”

“This is a recovery exercise. You’re _supposed_ to let me win…tournament matches could get pretty brutal.” There was a mild snort. “I’m almost disappointed that Anakin Skywalker never got to compete. There’d be some war stories to tell if he had.”

Savage grunted. “He was definitely strong, in the short times I’ve been in the same room with him. Why didn’t they let him compete?”

“He was too old,” Maul replied for Barriss. “Ten, I think, when they brought him into the Order, and apprenticed as soon as he was brought in.”

He had the satisfaction of seeing her confused for two seconds. “Oh…that’s right. You were there when they found him.”

“Nearly ran over the little nuisance with a speederbike.”

She grinned. “I’ve treated his wounds on occasion. His hard head wouldn’t have felt much if you _had_ hit him; you did the speederbike a favor when you missed.”

“I’ll take that into advisement.”

“…All right. This time _you_ are going to advance. _Slowly_ …I’m pushing against you, so don’t overextend yourself.”

He snarled; his muscles were not accustomed to the movement of pulling him forward, and there was some discomfort. “How did _Kenobi_ do at push-feather?” he asked mid-motion; he needed a boost, and anger was a cheap way to obtain that.

Barriss frowned, and eased into the bracing position; even then, she took a few moments to answer. “Master Kenobi never won a tournament to my knowledge, nor did he place. Neither did his Master…but his Master’s Master, Dooku, won the nine to twelve age bracket each year he was allowed to compete.”

“That _pretender_ is Kenobi’s grandmaster? I ought to have known.”

“Yes, well, you wouldn’t think it had you ever met Dooku. He and Master Jinn were at odds for some time, and I understand that Master Kenobi was kept out of his sphere of influence.”

“Hmm…” He wasn’t sure how to feel about that sort of information. It made Kenobi seem…less than what he’d thought he was. The ferocious and talented warrior who’d cut him down on Naboo was an _average_ wrestler? His teacher _dared_ to disagree with his teacher’s teacher… _a Sith Lord?_ His Master would have punished him for being average, and he’d have been in the medbay for a week if he’d ever spoken a word against him. And yet, an _average_ , undisciplined _Padawan_ of an average, undisciplined Knight had beat him, had nearly killed him.

Perhaps he had not been as exceptional as he’d thought. Maybe that would explain why his Master had…

Maul growled, and advanced against Barriss’s hands again. He was _not_ going to dwell on that idea. He couldn’t.

***

After about half an hour of push-feather, Maul was exhausted, though he was loath to admit it to himself or to either of them. However, he allowed himself to be persuaded to take a seat when Savage suggested a demonstration of his own lightsaber forms.

“Very well, Apprentice,” Barriss sat beside him on their last remaining box; she had to fight not to roll her eyes at the arrogance which saturated his tone. “Show me what you have learned, so that I might improve upon it.”

Savage bowed his head gravely, only a trace of snark in his voice as he replied. “Yes, Master.”

What followed was a fairly decent display of elementary _makashi_ technique. Barriss had never seen Form II used with a saberstaff before, though she’d heard rumors of Komari Vosa being adept at the technique. Alas, it seemed as if Savage simply hadn’t the range of motion required to truly make use of _makashi’_ s delicacy; he certainly wasn’t sloppy, but he was somewhat clumsy as he made his way through the set, and looked quite disappointed with his performance once he was done.

Maul looked at her. “What Master sees an Apprentice of Savage’s height and bulk and immediately trains him to _fence?_ ”

She pressed her lips tightly together, and answered at the same time as Savage. “Dooku.”

Maul grimaced. “I have to meet this man. He sounds like an _ass_.” He bit lightly at one finger while he thought. “Jinn utilized _ataru_ when he fought. There wasn’t a _hint_ of _makashi_ in him. And you say he was Dooku’s apprentice?”

“I told you, they were at odds. Dooku has an awful habit of trying to fit square pegs into round holes; Master Jinn learned _ataru_ from Yoda behind Dooku’s back, and Dooku’s only other apprentice had… _other_ issues.”

“Well, I am not going to continue that line of teaching with _you_ , Savage,” Maul said, looking his brother up and down. “I’d say the most natural form for you would be Form V, _djem so_.”

Savage shrugged. “That sounds fair.”

“The opening stance is with your feet shoulder-width apart and one leg slightly behind the other. Your arms are going to be lifted above your head…” Savage winced, and Barriss was gratified to see that Maul noticed immediately. “Is that uncomfortable?”

The large Zabrak set his jaw, and lifted his hands above his head again in the appropriate position. “No. Now what do I do?”

“Set your hands down, _now_. Barriss, can you look at him?”

“Of course,” she already had a pretty good feeling as to what was wrong.

Savage sagged, and, in a fit of Tano-esque instinct, she was tempted to lightly punch his chin to remove his crestfallen expression. “It’s not your fault that it hurts, Savage,” she murmured, raising a hand to Force-probe gingerly at the areas around his collarbones. “Have you ever experienced such discomfort before?”

“…Yes,” he said quietly.

“For how long has it been occurring?”

“Since…” Savage fell quiet and stared at the floor.

Barriss thought of the Nightsister ‘procedure’ he’d been forced to endure, and nodded grimly. “Well, you’ve got a fairly grotesque case of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. The nerves that connect your arms to your chest and head get pinched against the collarbones; it’s typically a genetic disorder, when the bones grow too thick and too quickly.” She neglected to mention that it very much was _not_ a genetic disorder in Savage’s case, but she was sure he and Maul could see her point.

Savage, for his part, seemed a little bit hopeful. “Can you…fix it?”

She sighed; these two were going to pull on _every bit_ of her education, weren’t they? “Normally I can trim the collarbone surgically, but, well, I don’t think we have the equipment here to do it. The operation is far too specialized for the nano-droids. Is there a way to, perhaps, drain whatever potion the Nightsisters used on you?”

“The ichor? I wouldn’t know; it wasn’t a man’s place to know those sorts of things.”

She looked back at Maul, whose eyes glimmered dangerously in the half-dark of the faulty cargo bay lights. “ _Ataru_ , then,” he said at length. “It might help you gain a little dexterity. After you master that, perhaps _shien_ would do better than _djem so_.”

“You’re throwing a lot of words at me that I don’t know.”

Maul smiled mirthlessly. “Hold the lightsaber hilt vertically in both hands. Keep your feet in the same position, and rotate your upper body so that the lower blade will go just past the outside of your dominant leg…yes, exactly like Barriss is doing, thank you Doctor…”

***

As the dark Korriban day led into the black Korriban night, Maul directed Barriss to help him to bed; it would be the first time he’d slept in one of the shuttle’s actual bunks, and they were _so_ much softer than the medbay bed.

She had just helped him lay down in the upper bunk and was about to push the bed into its alcove when the eerie howling began; the first of the planet’s seven moons rose over the horizon, with another moon in its wake. Maul smiled darkly; his fellow hunters were on the move.

“What are those?” Barriss asked; he could feel her fear, but the only outward signs of it she made was the miniscule tremor in her voice and the wideness of her eyes.

“ _Tuk’ata_ ,” he replied. “Sith hounds.”

Savage retreated from the bridge, that ridiculous blanket over his horns again. “Carnivores?” he asked.

“Naturally,” Maul replied. “But they understand I am a Sith Lord, and will not harm us. They’ll keep some of the wilder animals away from us as well.”

Barriss and Savage exchanged an uneasy glance, and began to pull the pillows out of the medbay. Apparently Savage was going to sleep on the floor outside their bunks tonight; such loyalty from someone more comfortable in the pilot’s chair, it was almost funny.

“Sleep well,” Maul tittered, as Barriss pushed him into the alcove.

He could hear her own bunk extend beneath him, but she did not push the bunk back in when she lay down. “I’ll take first watch, Savage. You just get some sleep.”

Clever woman; she did not take Maul at his word. He wasn’t lying to her, not this time. He’d already spoken to the hounds for this nighttime arrangement. But, she was smart not to trust him just the same. If only _Savage_ had learned that lesson…


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Maul takes an entire chapter to try and work through his Feelings, he's not quite there yet but to be fair there's a lot to work through, Barriss is Embarrassed (ha I made a funny I need sleep), Savage and Maul have a quiet bonding moment, and a sedative hypospray is gravely misused in a way that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen if Maul had an attorney on retainer.

It came as no surprise when Barriss’s first night on Korriban produced a nightmare; it was a common enough ailment on Sith homeworlds. Maul, who had fallen out of the habit of sleeping and spent most of his rest time meditating, saw the dream form soon after Savage took his turn at the watch. He watched her flit aimlessly through a dark, fetid corridor on a planet her mind named as Geonosis, trying fervently to remember a set of turns that were stored in the part of the brain that was currently asleep. A threatening humming sounded in the background all the while, growing closer and closer, until the stress forced her into wakefulness.

“Easy, easy now,” Savage murmured from the hall outside. “It was just a bad dream.”

Barriss breathed a sigh. “This _place_ …”

“It’s okay.”

Maul placed one eye against the crack between the wall and the drawer which contained his bunk; he could see Savage had one hand on Barriss’s back, while she continued to take deep, calming breaths.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment.

“Don’t be. You’ve seen enough of our nightmares that this is just paying you back.” One great hand patted her gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not…really.”

“That’s okay, then. Maybe you can sleep on your side this time? I find that helps when I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“That’s a good idea.” She lay down once more, taking Savage’s advice. “Don’t forget to wake me when it’s my turn.”

“I won’t. Sleep well.”

Maul settled onto his side, but his mind was still racing too hard to consider sleep or even meditation. He didn’t know what he felt in witnessing this interaction between his two apprentice candidates. On the one hand, he wanted to berate both of them, Barriss for showing weakness and Savage for indulging it. The number of punishments he’d born for waking from the night in fear had lessened his need for sleep, and thus prepared him for the ultimate trial of Lotho Minor. He was _stronger_ because he’d been trained not to accept or even to require help from _anyone_.

And yet…a part of him wondered at how _easy_ it was for the two to ask for and to receive help. Both of them had been through trials of their own, painful and terrifying trials, but their first instinct was still to seek out help when they were unable to bear something on their own. Neither one of them had been alone before now; neither one of them was alone _now_. And neither one of them had been as completely abandoned as Maul had been for _years_.

It hurt, to think that perhaps his isolation was his fault. If he had not lost the duel with Kenobi…if he had uttered some sort of cry, either when he fell or when he landed, that could have brought attention to his situation…if he’d thought to seek some sort of help, find a communicator and cobble it together, call his Master instead of hiding in the trash and letting himself be delivered off world…but no, his Master would have punished him for failing. 

But neither Savage nor Barriss would.

It was too much to think about.

***

“I had a thought,” Barriss said a few days later, as she and Maul engaged in their daily game of push-feather.

Maul narrowed his eyes at her, suspecting a distraction; he’d progressed to the point that they were actually trying to shove each other to the ground, and she could be a _nasty_ little cheat when she wanted. “A _relevant_ thought?”

She smiled. “Just a thought. Savage’s horns are getting rather long.”

Savage was currently fixing lunch in the refectory, which meant that Maul was devoid a referee. “He can wear them long if he wants.”  
  


“Yes, but they’re starting to hit the roof in certain areas of the ship, and it doesn’t seem like he likes it. And with his thoracic outlet, trying to trim them might be rather hard for him.”

“So?”

“ _So_ …why don’t you ask him if you can trim them?”

“Why don’t _you_?”

“I don’t have horns.”

“You’ve trimmed them before, no doubt.”

“Not really, no. Most Zabrak like to have it done by family and close friends if they can’t do it themselves…communal bonding and whatnot. It’s for the same reason I haven’t let you two see my hair.”

He smirked; there was a slight fault in her stance, but she hadn’t noticed yet. “You have hair?”

She rolled her eyes. “Would you at least consider it?”

“Perhaps.”

Taking advantage of her momentary lack of focus, Maul swiped at her foot with the Force. Barriss yelped, and fell backwards; Maul was allowed one moment of triumph before her strong grip on his hands pulled him down with her. A few seconds of confusion later, he reared up on his hands, grinning down at her.

“ _Hah!_ ”

A blush was creeping its way across her dappled nose and cheeks, and she avoided his eyes. “Let me up.”

“Not until you admit you lost.”

“ _Fine_ , I lost. Now get _off_ of me!”

“You _lost,_ ” he crowed, still not moving. “Fair and square! To a _cripple!_ ”

“That is an _ableist_ term…”

“ _To a cripple!_ ”

“ _Maul_ , this is _not funny!_ ”

“Am I interrupting anything?”

Maul beamed up at Savage, still not moving. “Look, brother! I _won!_ ”

Savage shook his head, moving toward the one cargo box they had in order to set the lunch tray there. “If you don’t get off her soon, you’ll have to name the child after me. It’s one way to become an uncle, I guess…”

“What?”

Barriss shoved him away, her face blooming with dark emerald splotches as she scrambled to her feet. “It’s time for lunch, Maul.”

“ _What?_ ”

Savage sat cross-legged on the ground, chuckling as he bit into a sandwich. “When’s the best season for weddings on this light-forsaken planet?”

“Don’t _you_ start,” Barriss said, leveling a finger at Savage in promise of reprisal. “Maul, get up and come eat your lunch.”

“You two are being _deliberately_ cryptic. What are you laughing at?”

Savage grinned. “What would your babies look like, I wonder?”

Barriss smacked him on the shoulder, Savage laughed, and Maul was left to chew his food without any answers.

***

As the Korriban afternoon edged toward evening, Maul approached the bridge where Savage sat, horn file in hand. At the doorway, he paused, his hearts suddenly racing and indecision clouding his mind. _What if he says no? What if I file too hard, or too fast? What if I hurt him? He’s so much bigger than me, and I’m only barely on my feet…_

“What’s the matter, brother?”

The honest, unguarded look on Savage’s face was not as terrible as…well, whatever Maul had been anticipating. It was as if he _welcomed_ Maul’s input. Did he not know how dangerous that was? How easily a welcome could be abused?

“I…” he faltered, quailing.

“Yes?”

Words failed him, and before he could convince himself to run away, Maul held up the file. “Your horns are getting long. I was wondering if I could…”

The expression on Savage’s face melted into something for which Maul had no name. “That’s very nice of you, Maul,” he said, smiling. “Let me sit down, and you can get to work.”

“I’ve…never done this for anyone else before,” Maul said warningly.

Savage shrugged it off. “Have to learn sometime,” he said good-naturedly. “I used to let the cubs practice on me; I can take a few miss-steps.”

Cautiously, Maul set the file against the horn in the middle of Savage’s head, and carefully began to scrape it back and forth.

His brother sighed in contentment. “Feral always started with that one too. I never understood why; you have to reach between the other horns to do that, and they poke my hands.”

“But your hands are bigger than mine,” Maul said, as he gained a little confidence. “And the other horns aren’t sharpened yet, so there’s less chance I’ll get cut if I do this one first.”

“You might have a point there.”

They sat for a few minutes, the scratching of metal against hardened keratin the only sound in the room. After a while, however, Maul started to feel Savage growing melancholy.

“What was Feral like?” he asked, before he realized that might not be the way to comfort his brother’s sadness. “I mean…I doubt he was very much like me.”

Savage shrugged. “I think you could have been very much alike, given the chance. Feral was smart; he knew how to fight a Sister and survive without making too much of a spectacle of himself, knew when to play dumb to downplay his good looks. And he was tough, too; I caught him giving up his food for the younger kids more than a few times, and he never complained about being hungry.”

Maul caught the subtle implication of that description; by comparing him favorably with Feral, Savage revealed that he thought Maul was smart and tough as well. He…wasn’t sure what to do with that information; he certainly didn’t _feel_ intelligent or strong, given his rather dependent situation.

“What did he look like?”

“Orange, with a horn pattern like yours, only he had three little horns right between his eyebrows,” Savage rubbed at the described placement with one thumb. “And his markings were very light. With his coloration, he could move around in the trees during daylight and still be practically invisible. I used to distract rancors by being really loud and mean and visible, and he’d move in for the kill.”

Maul could see the pincer movement in his mind, and smiled absently. “What would my placement have been in a rancor hunt?”

“Eh, you could be flexible. You’d be the distraction during the day, and the killer at night…”

Barriss was in the doorway; Maul noticed her though Savage did not. Maul gestured down at the horns in front of him, and she nodded silently, smiling, before slipping away to another part of the ship.

All the while, Savage kept up his descriptions of life on Dathomir. By the time Maul had finished filing, it almost felt as if he had been there. His hearts ached, but in a good way; it was hard to describe, and harder to name, but whatever it was, it meant this exercise merited repetition sometime in the future.

***

A few days after that, Barriss had him sit in the medbay. “It’s about time I looked at your right shoulder,” she said. “Your hormones should have stabilized by now, and that joint is going to slow you up in a fight if I don’t take a look at it.”

Maul did not want _anything_ affecting him in a fight whatsoever, _especially_ against _Kenobi_. He had been _looking forward_ to this procedure with almost childlike glee.

Barriss looked at him as if he’d grown two heads. “Quit fidgeting. You’d think I’d offered you a lolly.”

“We have lollies?” Savage asked, settling himself into a chair beside Maul, his eyes glittering hopefully.

“No.”

“Aw.”

“Pity.”

Barriss sighed. “I am the only functioning adult on this ship.”

“But you’re _our_ functioning adult, and we forgive you.”

Barriss _glared_ at Maul. “Well, at least I no longer feel bad about doing _this_.” Without any further warning, she took the round part of his shoulder in both hands, and _pushed_.

Maul felt something _snap_ in the ball-and-socket joint. He bit his lip to muffle a cry of pain, and clenched his left hand only to feel Savage’s hand had slipped into his grip.

“Easy, brother. Don’t mess with anything she’s doing.”

He had no intention of doing so. Already, Barriss was soothing the pain, and he could feel the bone knitting together again (correctly this time) under the impulse of her focused mind.

“All right,” she said at length. “I’m going to break right _here_ ,” she touched lightly on a place where the joint met his shoulder blade. “Do you want a warning this time?”

“I won’t flinch, if that’s what you’re aSKING…” Maul hissed against the sudden pain. “ _STARS._ ”

“It’s okay,” Savage murmured, one hand squeezing Maul’s, the other rubbing soothing circles on Maul’s back. It was the same soothing exercise he’d done with Barriss…the same indulging of _weakness…_

Maul bit his lip, willing his mind back from the precipice. Savage thought he was _strong_. This was simply…a joint hunt. Yes. A joint hunt…Savage was distracting the rancor, while Maul led it into a position where Barriss could strike to kill. Maul would be stronger for this temporary vulnerability.

Keeping that thought in mind, Maul leaned into his brother’s touch, and let the cooling effect of Barriss’s healing wash over him.

***

Savage kept a close eye on Barriss for the entire procedure. Maul had no idea he was doing it, being admittedly occupied with other thoughts. However, he did notice eventually, once everything was done and Savage helped him lay down on the bed.

She did seem somewhat fatigued, now that he thought to look; she was slumped against the back of her own chair, and her eyelids were heavy.

“Are you all right?” Savage asked. Maul opened his mouth to answer, but Barriss seemed to think the question was directed at her.

“Yes,” she said, with a sleepy smile. “Believe it or not, I’ve done more involved procedures than _that_ in one sitting.”

His brother rumbled dubiously, not convinced. “We had a healer in the village; we had to keep him from killing himself by doing things such as this.”

“How well-trained was he?”

“He was a _man_.”

“Right. Well, in the Halls of Healing, we’re taught not to infuse a patient directly with our own life force. Instead, we use the Force to direct the patient’s own body into healing itself…somewhat like stitching something together with a little thread.”

“Huh…interesting. I wonder if that’s what the Witches do, without telling us.”

“Perhaps.” Barriss stifled a yawn with one graceful hand, and slowly stood. “I do think I shall need a nap, however. I’ll see you both in a couple of hours.”

***

For whatever reason, the scene of his triumph at push-feather haunted Maul’s dreams that afternoon. Barriss’s face, so close to his own, flushed with indignation, her large blue eyes sparkling with suppressed laughter even as she frowned up at him. It would only entail a small movement of the head for them to make contact…all he needed to do was lean down and…

Maul sat upright, suddenly and uncomfortably awake. In the hallway outside, there was a dull thud, along with a few mild almost-curses; Barriss had hit her head against the ceiling of her bunk.

Savage wandered into the hallway, glancing between his two companions. “You all right?” he asked no one in particular.

“Sex.”

Savage recoiled, his expression revolted. “ _Excuse_ me?”

“That day, when I won against Barriss in push-feather. You thought we were…”

“I _teased_ you about it, I didn’t actually think…”

There was a commotion from the hallway as Barriss pushed open her bunk. “STOP THINKING ABOUT IT, FOR PITY’S SAKE!” She thundered into the room, glaring at him, every exposed part of her face deeply flushed. “I’M TRYING TO _SLEEP_!”

Teasing…right. Maul knew he was going to be punished for this, but he also knew he was _never_ going to regret it.

“What _would_ our children look like, I wonder?”

Barriss _shivered_ with rage, rummaged in her pack for a few brief moments, then smacked Maul in the neck with a hypo. “ _Sleep_ , you _menace_ ,” she growled.

“Temper, temper,” Savage tittered from the hallway, and Barriss whirled to advance on him next.

Maul, for his part, sank down against the medbay cot under the influence of the sedative, still laughing. He’d found the fault in her stance again…victory was sweet.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Anakin is having a flashback while he slowly goes gundarkshit, apologies are made, Barriss has a Crush (TM), and also Denial (C), Savage has eaten things he probably shouldn't, and Maul's grand walking tour gets interrupted by (you guessed it) GHOSTS.

It had been an unexpected high point in Anakin’s life, that day when he and Ahsoka stopped in the middle of nowhere for a decently greasy lunch after she called him to pick him up from her stalled spaceship.The establishment’s patrons had been jittery, and the waitress was shaking, but the food had been thoroughly cooked, even though Ahsoka pushed it around more than she really ate it.

_“What’s wrong, Snips?” he asked with his mouth full; she seemed a little down, and watching his nonchalant disregard for Core table manners often helped cheer her up._

_She shrugged listlessly, took a tiny bite of her bantha burger, and washed it down with her soda. “Has Barriss come home yet?” she asked casually._

_His heart sank. “No…I’m sorry.”_

_“That’s okay. I was just…hoping.” Before his mind could start racing with plans to get Barriss back and wipe that frown off of his Snips’s face, Ahsoka sighed. “There was something I wanted to talk to her about, when she got home.”_

_“Is it something you can talk to me about instead?”_

_“Not…well. It’s kind of like…I dunno, girl talk.”_

_“I can do girl talk.”_

_She raised an eyebrow._

_“I can function as a decent sounding board by listening patiently to girl talk and only offering input when specifically requested to do so.” He hadn’t survived two years of marriage to the smartest woman in galactic politics by being a complete idiot._

_Ahsoka snickered…atta girl._

_“Come on, Snips. What’s on your mind?”_

_She took a deep breath, looking furtively around the room. “What…what was your first kiss like?”_

_To his credit, Anakin hadn’t spat any food out in surprise; slave instincts prevented him from such a terrible waste of resources. Instead, he held up a finger, and chewed slowly, only swallowing when he was decently sure he wouldn’t choke. “Um, what gives you the idea I’ve ever kissed anybody?”_

_She got that face from Obi-Wan, he was certain of it. “Master, you do realize that the Order has no vow of celibacy, right? Everyone knows you and she are, ahem, ‘close personal friends’.”_

_The three quarters of bantha burger in his stomach gurgled menacingly, but slave instincts prevented him from puking unless absolutely necessary. “She could get in a lot of trouble if everyone knows.”_

_“She is smarter than you.” Ahsoka huffed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I’ll just…”_

_“Why do you want to know? About the kiss, I mean?”_

_She grimaced. “It’s nothing.”_

_“Uh-huh, I don’t believe you.”_

_She rolled her eyes, and put her face miserably in her hands. “I just…there was no way Death Watch would have believed I was Lux’s sister, and if I told them I was his bodyguard they’d have suspected I was a Jedi. So I told them I was his betrothed.”_

_Oh. That made sense. “So you had to kiss him?”_

_“He kissed me, because they came in on an incriminating conversation.”_

_Anakin swirled a hubba fry in the barbecue sauce, trying to sort through his emotions on that slimy little twerp kissing his Snips. “Was it…nice, at least?”_

_“It was awful. And I…I dunno. I’d pictured it being…a little more romantic?”_

_He raised his eyebrows. “You’d…pictured it? Meaning, you like him?”_

_She looked crushed; he’d never seen her shoulders slump so badly. “I thought I did.”_

_“Ah, Snips.” There were times when he just wanted to pick her up and rock her against his chest like a baby, even if she was pushing sixteen. “I’m sorry. Something like that should have been special.”_

_She sniffed. “Maybe it’s special when you both actually like each other. Lux…doesn’t like me that way.”_

_“It’s okay. He doesn’t deserve you.” Oh, but Anakin could think of about a dozen other things the little punk deserved…_

_“It’s not his fault I had a crush that he didn’t reciprocate,” Ahsoka said, in doing so breaking Anakin out of the delightful little daydream before it got to the good part. “I just wish I hadn’t made such an idiot out of myself. I offered to leave the Order for him, you know? And he just…let me down easy. He didn’t even let me argue; he just got in an escape pod and left.”_

_One of these days he was going to rock right up to the Separatist Parliament with a sawed-off slugthrower, the entire 501 st at his back, and a target in mind. If Padmé could do it, he could do it._

_“Please don’t be angry,” he was rocketed back to the present when he sensed the fear in his Padawan’s head, and saw her poor little blue eyes well up with tears. “I didn’t leave. It was a stupid thing to say…”_

_He held a finger up in front of her face. “I am not. Not. Angry. Not with you.” He bopped her nose while he had her attention. “And I’ve said far stupider things than that, trust me.” He would not elaborate, or otherwise she and Padmé would gang up on him whenever the word ‘sand’ was uttered in his presence. “But…well, I’m glad you came to me for advice, because I actually do have something useful to say.”_

_Ahsoka cocked her montrals adorably toward him, looking like a tooka kit and not like the beautiful young lady who was growing up too fast for him. “Really?”_

_“Really. Lean in close, ‘cause this will blow your mind.” When she did so, he grinned, and whispered loudly into her horns. “My first kiss was kriffing fantastic.” Short as it had been, that wasn’t a lie; he still had dreams about that fateful day on Naboo, and it made Padmé blush like a schoolgirl every time he told her that._

_Ahsoka glared at him. “…Good for you, I guess…?”_

_“Um-hmmm,” he said, cramming the last piece of his burger into his mouth. “Undja know why dat ish?”_

_“Don’t talk with your mouth full.”_

_“It’sh becaushe,” he took a moment to swallow. “The person I kissed first had kissed other people before. And she’d been kissed very badly, too. She corrected my technique.” And, thinking back on it now, knowing what Ahsoka had just endured, Anakin realized that his wife was probably the stealthiest teacher he’d ever had; he hadn’t even realized he was being corrected until much later._

_“So…it’s not…a big deal then…?”_

_“Oh no, it’s a big deal. But, when you actually find the person you really want to kiss, and keep kissing, you will remember this one little mistake, and you won’t make it again.”_

_Ahsoka took a long sip of her drink, eyes distant as she considered that. “Was your first kiss special for her, too?”_

_He smiled, remembering the exact moment Padmé had had to break off from him before anything less discrete than a kiss started happening in public. “It was…”_

Anakin opened his eyes, feeling like he’d just been stabbed in the back. Ahsoka had _confided_ in him about something _intensely_ personal. And now, he learned that she’d gone right back to keeping secrets as soon as they touched down on Coruscant.

Obi-Wan regarded him shrewdly, his face solemn even against the static that was hitting their comm connection. “I’m sorry, Anakin. I would have told you…”

“I was going under deep cover, and you didn’t learn of it until I had already left.” Anakin glared at the juvenile Twi’lek who stood beside his Master, some paces away from Obi-Wan. “But someone _did_ manage to talk to Ahsoka as we were walking out.”

At least the kid had the grace to look just a little bit guilty. “It was a personal matter up until then, Master Skywalker. We didn’t realize it led to something like this.”

“But that is _beside_ the _point_ ,” Obi-Wan declared. “The fact is that somehow, Darth Maul is alive, and he’s somehow captured a Jedi Healer in order to restore himself to full health. And I need you to help me find them, Anakin, or there’s a chance a great many people could suffer.”

He closed his eyes again, breathed, and nodded once, curtly. “Right. I’ll focus on the task at hand. Did Ohnaka tell you _anything_ of value?”

“He never managed to see Offee,” Obi-Wan said, his hand caressing his beard in thought. “Otherwise, he’d have sold her for the Separatist bounty without a second thought; there was no indication that he’d received a great deal more cash than he does in his usual raids.”

“How do you _know_ that?”

“I read his mind, Anakin,” the ‘duh’ was implied.

“So…where would a Sith Lord run to lay low for a while?” Anakin brought up the star maps, pondering. “Felucia’s not too far away.”

“It’s an active war zone.”

“The dude survived being cut in half and thrown in the trash. Maybe he _likes_ war zones.”

“ _Anakin_.”

“Maybe he went back to his home planet?” Lissarkh suggested.

“You mean the planet that Grievous just shot to hell?”

“You have to admit it would be quiet.”

“True…okay. So, I’ll try to look there, if you’ll get the Council off my back…”

“No problems there. My men and the 41st will stay to keep sweeping the systems near Florrum. Someone has to turn up _something_.”

“Right. Keep me posted.”

***

The diamond cluster on her chest was beginning to branch out toward her shoulders and neck. She still did not have any way of confirming with an older Mirialan what the pattern meant, and it was situated unsettlingly close to her thymus gland, which was beginning to concern her. Barriss had certainly never _heard_ of a malfunctioning Mirialan thymus producing marks out of nowhere, but it wasn’t something to rule out…though, no other diamonds had appeared anywhere else, which certainly made it look like these were normal marks. The rate at which they were materializing was worrying her, though; none of her other marks had come about this quickly.

As she dressed, she tried to think back to when the diamonds had first appeared, and if she had noticed them. It was true that she’d first seen the new marks after she’d expelled Mother Talzin by, well, accidentally claiming Maul in marriage, which could indeed produce an achievement mark (but she understood that it would appear over the _heart_ , not the thymus). That had also been the first chance she’d taken to examine her skin in the mirror since she left the GAR. It could have been caused by any number of things that she had done; if only she could remember what those things _were_.

In any case, she did not want to go out and face the brothers that day. They’d now got the idea that she was _attracted_ to Maul, and she knew enough about both men to know that she would be _relentlessly_ ribbed about it. And her treacherous blood vessels were _not_ helping. On a normal day, Tutso had joked that she blushed so easily that he could simply order her to do so and she would, and he was right. When she was pinned (however innocently) to the ground by a perfect stranger who had an expressive face, a beautiful voice, and absolutely no idea just how _alluring_ he could be…

…Good _kriffing stars_ , she _was_ attracted to Maul.

Hahaha, _no_. Nononononono, uh-uh. Nope. That was going _straight_ into her giant mental box of repressed feelings, because…no. That’s the only reason she needed. Nern. Osk. NO.

Two solid thuds landed against the door to the small refresher, and Barriss was startled out of her reverie. “Did you fall in?” Savage boomed.

She almost wished she had; a girl couldn’t even have a nervous breakdown in peace on this ship. “Just a second!”

“You said that fifteen minutes ago!”

“You can go outside!”

“I ain’t getting et by Sith coyotes! Hurry up or I’m going in your bunk!”

_Infuriating_ man. “All right, _fine_ ,” she yelled, yanking open the door. “Are you…HEY!”

Savage picked her up, set her down in the hallway, and slammed the door behind him, leaving Barriss struggling to get her bearings as her internal compass did an unbidden hard reset.

And, _of course_ , the _one_ person she wanted to see _least_ peered out of the medbay door, frowning in the direction of the refresher. “What’s a coyote?”

“Small undomesticated canid, eats carrion, generally bad-tempered and considered a pest species.”

“…Tuk’ata are NOT COYOTES!” Maul yelled. “They are DOGS. They won’t eat you unless I TELL them to do so!”

“I’M NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES!” Savage roared back. “Those things are CREEPY!”

“THEY ARE GOOD DOGS, BROTHER…where are you going?”

She didn’t bother to answer him verbally; she was nowhere near caffeinated enough for this exchange as it was.

“Barriss?”

Oh, great, he was _following_ her; any _normal_ person, only two weeks after growing his entire lower half back, would still be hobbling around on crutches, but _no_ , Lord _Maul_ had to make do by leaning on the walls within a week. She’d berate him for overworking himself, _AGAIN_ , but she was doing her level best not to look at him, because his determination to recover so quickly _was_ terribly impressive and _she was not about to admit that she thought that out loud_.

“Are you angry with me?”

Did he _have_ to ask that with such a hopeful tone, like she’d given him a Life Day present? Ruddy _Sith_. “No, I am _annoyed_ with the _both_ of you. Leave me alone.”

“Is this because of yesterday?”

She could _not_ blame him for having a dream of them…being _affectionate_. But. She _was_ still somewhat peeved that he’d had the nerve to tease _her_ for having the same dream. So she said “Yes,” and had done with it. She had tea to bastardize with instant coffee.

“…Barriss, I’m sorry.”

She blinked, and an instant later found she was staring at him, despite her resolution _not_ to look at him. “Excuse me?”

He rolled his amber eyes and absently folded his strong, striped arms, but met her gaze firmly as he continued. “I _apologize_ , Doctor. I was not trying to proposition you. I had only just understood the earlier joke, and was confirming the punchline. I did not intend to offend you.”

Barriss looked back toward her cup of hot water; she was blushing again. “I accept your apology,” she said quickly, steeping the tea to mask her emotions. “And for what it’s worth, I apologize for sedating you in the way I did.”

He scoffed. “Best night’s sleep I’ve had in a week. You have nothing to apologize for.”

“Still, it was unprofessional. And it won’t happen again.”

“…Very well.”

He just… _stood_ there and watched her work for seven heartbeats… _yes_ , she was counting them. Her hands were beginning to twitch from sheer anxiety when he finally broke the silence.

“Are you still angry with me?”

This time, the note he struck was plaintive, far from the timbre of Sith seduction he’d opted to take before. A brief glance at him proved he was, indeed, sincere…and sad, and with great, contrite, puppy-dog eyes whose gaze Barriss could not tolerate in her current frame of mind. She tried her best to seem casual, even as she avoided him again.

“I was never angry with you,” she said to her cup. “It’s nothing. I promise.”

“Are you…Sith _hells_ , Savage!”

The older Zabrak waved his hand as he passed by the refectory, grinning proudly. “WOOO! It’s good to have _that_ out of my system!”

“What could you _possibly_ have eaten to produce that _smell_?”

“Smoked wampa jerky.”

“…That was TWO YEARS out of date!” Sufficiently distracted, Maul started out of the refectory after his brother.

“It’s _jerky_. It keeps longer than that.”

“That’s _not_ how it works!”

“I didn’t see _you_ eating it, _Dad._ ”

The sounds of a scuffle echoed in the hallway. Barriss breathed a sigh of relief. She’d gotten too close, _again_. But she’d pulled herself back before. She could do it this time, too, if she were given an appropriate amount of time to prepare.

***

Today was The Day! Maul was certain he could run if needed, and the weather outside was as good as could be reasonably expected from Korriban. Today, they were going on a walking tour of the Tombs. It would be a nice change from being cooped up in the ship, which now _reeked_ of the bad meat which had been left to curdle in Savage’s gut for however long. Honestly, Zabrak or not, that was _disgusting_.

His brother seemed less than enthused by the news. “What else wants to eat me beside the dark side dingoes?”

“…What’s a dingo?” he asked Barriss.

She sipped at whatever concoction she had made for herself – did neither of these two understand the benefits of decent food? He felt _so_ much better now that he wasn’t forced to eat trash. “Like a coyote, only cuter and meaner.”

“They are _not_ dingoes, brother, I told you. They understand the Sith tongue. They will not hurt you.”

“So what else is out there?”

“Nothing that the tuk’ata have not scared away by now.”

“That’s reassuring…”

“Doesn’t a walk sound nice about now?” He looked to Barriss, who was spurning eye contact again, for whatever reason. “Would it not aid my recovery?”

“…It would,” she said at last, her expression one of deep discomfort. “As long as it’s not too far a walk.”

“Then it’s settled.”

Savage groaned petulantly. “I suppose we could cook one of those things if they try to eat us.”

“They _won’t_. Come on…”

A few minutes later, they made their way down the gangplank, Maul in the lead. Barriss was not too far behind him…whatever funk she was going through had not dampened her healer’s instincts, because she seemed prepared to catch him if he did overbalance. Savage, however, was dragging his feet.

“Come, brother, we haven’t got all day! The shyracks are more active at night!”

“The kriff is a shyrack?”

“Giant nocturnal flying mammal, likes the taste of sapient flesh. Roasts well.”

Barriss’s face contorted with revulsion. “Oh, _that_ sounds hygienic.”

“It is…I said it was roasted.”

“Brother,” Savage said, ambling toward the ground. “Just what sort of _hellhole_ have you…”

Maul, already ten steps toward the Valley of the Sith Lords, halted when his brother stopped speaking mid-sentence. “You all right, brother?” he asked, turning around.

Barriss, who had been only a few paces behind him, was backing toward him, her eyes fixed on Savage. The bigger Zabrak stood with his head slumped on his shoulders, eerily still, save for a few twitches in his fingers. Slowly, his head rose – he did not _raise_ it, it _rose_ , as if it was operated by some other will than Savage’s, as if Savage were a puppet and the only thing required for his head to move was for the puppeteer to pull on a certain string.

His brother’s eyes opened…and they were not his brother’s eyes. Instead, there were two glowing green voids in his brother’s face, and they glimmered brightly toward Barriss, who by now had slunk behind Maul, more afraid than he’d ever seen her.

“ _I found you_.” Savage’s jaw flapped, but it was not his voice that came out.

“Mother?”

“ _In a minute, my boy. The women are talking._ ”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Mother Talzin is the mother-in-law from the netherworld's nether regions, tuk'ata are easily manipulated with promises of tummy rubs, and an unexpected friend is made.

“ _Well, little witch. You’ve managed to make off with two of our clan’s most valuable brothers and gallivant across the galaxy with them, removing them from their family and culture. What have you to say for yourself?_ ”

“They were already removed when I found them,” Barriss said, proud that her voice carried well without a tremor. Facing this ghost now inhabiting the body of one of her dearest friends had apparently been _much_ less frightening when she was sleep deprived. “All I have ever done was aid them medically.”

“ _To great effect, as I can see._ ” The ghost contorted Savage’s gentle face into a lewd smile. “ _It’s certainly not orthodox for a Sister to have to go to such trouble in order to ensure the birth of the next generation…_ ”

“I am not one of your Sisters, Witch.”

Talzin laughed. “ _Such confidence! Such talent! My tribe is descended from a castaway Jedi such as yourself, my daughter. I think you’ll find we have much in common._ ”

“Not enough. _Get out of him_ , and go back whence you came.”

There were no pupils in the green, smoking lights where Savage’s eyes should have been, but Barriss still had the impression that Talzin rolled her eyes. “ _That won’t work this time, child. You already have an active claim on one Brother; any others will be invalid until he has done his duty by you, and died. Unless,_ ” the ghost smiled again, waggling Savage’s eyebrows, “ _you mean to tell me that I am to be a grandmother?_ ”

Barriss choked on the breath she took for whatever reply she had. Reflexively she glanced at Maul, anticipating _some_ sort of reaction, but other than a brief narrowing of his eyes, he showed no indication of even having heard.

“ _Ah, so you haven’t even told him yet. I suppose that means the honor is mine, then…_ ”

“How is it that you are able to possess Savage, Mother?” Maul asked, interrupting her. “Am I right in supposing that it requires a blood claim?”

“ _Son, I’m in the middle of an important conversation._ ”

“Get _out_ of _my brother_ ,” he snarled, and every muscle in his back contracted in the effort. “You heard what the doctor said. Get thee _out_ , and return whence you came.”

A shudder shook Savage’s body. “ _You…little…_ ”

“Did you not hear me? I _said_ GET OUT!”

Green mist poured out of Savage’s every orifice – even his very _pores_ – and as it did the hulking Nightbrother collapsed to his knees. Barriss instinctively made to run to his side, but Maul held his arm out to stop her, staring distrustfully at the eerie cloud that had accumulated around his wide-eyed brother.

“Quit _stalling_ , Mother. My claim is as strong as yours, and unlike you, I am actually alive at the present moment. GO!”

“ _This isn’t over_ ,” the cloud responded. “ _I’ve come too far to be thrown out like so much trash_.”

One howl, then two, then twenty more, split the silent air of the deathly still Korriban morning.

Barriss cringed. “Did you call the tuk’ata?”

Maul grimaced. “No.” He held out a hand, beckoning to Savage. “Brother? _Run_.” And then he followed his own advice, making for the tombs.

Barriss hurried after him, trying to ignore the cacophony of yips, barks, and growls that rang out from behind her. The Valley of the Sith Lords was not that far away, perhaps a fifteen minute walk…but they were on two feet, and trying to race quadrupeds, and though Maul had recovered quickly, he was nowhere _near_ at top form, and he would inevitably…

Trip over his own feet. Barriss _hated_ being right about these things. It was the work of a moment to get his right arm over her shoulders and haul him back into a standing position, but it was a moment which they could not spare. Heavy footsteps were already sounding directly behind them…

And then, they were separated by the force of a gigantic body slamming into the small space between them, and half a heartbeat later Barriss found herself carried like a log under one great, humanoid arm. She gaped at Maul, who gawped back perplexedly from under the other arm. Savage Opress ran like a juggernaut toward the ancient tombs with every bit of strength his powerful legs could manage, screaming like a maniac the entire time.

They were allowed a moment’s respite upon reaching the line of tombs; the tuk’ata, terrible giant canids that they were, balked at entering, even with their eyes glowing green under Talzin’s influence. “ _What are you waiting for, you wretched beasts?_ ” the Witch demanded. Her only answer came in the form of multiple doggish whines and whimpers.

“She’ll goad them in here eventually; we need to find shelter.” Savage grunted, setting the two of them down. “Are there any tombs that won’t try to kill us?”

Maul swiveled around, examining each tomb he saw, rejecting each with a steadily growing panic. “No…not that one…no…”

“ _Over here!_ ” Barriss spun at the sound of that voice; another ghost, blue in color, waved toward them and pointed to a tomb directly behind it. “ _You can stay with me!_ ” Without a second thought, she ran in that direction.

“Barriss, what are you doing?”

She turned around to face the brothers, exasperated. “Can’t you see him? He says his tomb is safe!”

They looked at each other, alarmed, and then Savage followed her, with Maul trailing him. In the space of a few heartbeats, the ghost led them down into the tomb, and the doors slammed shut behind them.

Within seconds, the cries of the tuk’ata became louder as they encircled their hiding place. Barriss inhaled sharply when she heard the distinctive sound of digging, but a second later there was a loud yelp and that operation was stalled.

“ _Mangy mutts,_ ” the blue ghost muttered. “ _I don’t know why everyone else liked them so much; no respect for their own history_.” Barriss took a moment to study him more thoroughly; he was a Mirialan man of about Maul’s height, with a small goatee, diamonds running down his cheeks like sideburns to denote one who listened, and similar marks strung up his fingers as signs of an accomplished writer.

She felt as if she should recognize their rescuer, but before she could say anything, Savage cut her off. “They’re _good dogs_ , brother,” he mocked, _glowering_ at Maul.

“…Shut up.”

***

Well, _that_ had taken an unexpected turn. At least they were safe for now. Once his heartsbeats had calmed down to a manageable level, Maul took the time to look around him.

The tomb was fairly small for that of a Sith Lord…cheerful too. Most of the Sith of Bane’s line dreaded death, and the certain imprisonment of their spirits to one small space that came with it; they made their tombs into vast underground palaces to mitigate the feeling of confinement. This however…Maul had seen bigger mausoleums on Coruscant, where cremation was mandatory. There was a coffin in the center of one room, and a female statue sat sedately at its head. Every wall was a stone bookcase, left disconcertingly empty. The only luxury that had been afforded was a skylight, which illuminated the coffin with a simple geometric pattern of green and purple light…a _familiar_ geometric pattern, at that.

“I’d never heard of a Mirialan Sith Lord,” he said, examining the coffin more closely. “There’s no indication of what his name was here.” After a moment, he stared up at Barriss; she’d missed her cue. “Barriss, what is his name?”

She blinked, perplexed. “You mean you can’t hear him? But he’s standing right…oh, I guess that would do it, wouldn’t it?” Her blue eyes flitted between Maul, Savage, and what Maul presumed was the inhabitant ghost of this structure, who was apparently standing at the foot of the statue, though neither he nor his brother could see him. “He says you might have known him as Darth Graveed, but he greatly prefers his real name, Nilam of Kailash – really, that was _you_? Of _course_ I know who you are! You’re one of the Lost Twenty!”

Maul cleared his throat to halt her monologue. He had memorized the entire line of Bane in childhood, and recited it obsessively when the nursery rhymes provided no solace on Lotho Minor; he did not recall a Darth Graveed. “Who was his apprentice?” he asked.

“Darth Gean.”

“Oh, you mean Darth Gravid.”

Obviously whoever Barriss was seeing had a great many opinions about that observation; she curled both of her lips into her mouth to bite them at the same time in a valiant attempt to prevent laughter. “Maul, the word ‘gravid’ as pronounced in Core Basic is a technical term for ‘pregnant’. ‘Gravid’, pronounced Gra _veed_ , is the Mirialan term for scientific knowledge.”

“Ironic, considering how Darth _Graveed_ was single-handedly responsible for _destroying_ the bulk of Sith scientific progress.” Gean’s memoirs had waxed poetic – and profane – on the matter.

Barriss raised her eyebrows, and looked to what Maul saw as a patch of empty space next to Savage for confirmation. “Well, that _would_ explain why he’s a Sith Lord who died on the light side.”

Savage startled away from his position, moving to stand beside Maul. “Just once, just _once_ , I would like for there to be a planet with no _fragging ghosts_.”

“Like Florrum?”

“A Witch tracked us there.”

“A _living_ Witch.”

“ _She counts._ ”

Barriss was still listening to empty space. “No, he means no insult, sir. His mother is a Witch of Dathomir, and she just recently possessed his body against his will. He’s still recovering from a bit of a shock.” She stopped speaking for a moment, and then nodded; it was _weird_ , seeing only one-half of a conversation in this way. “Yes, that is her making the tuk’ata surround the place.” Another moment of silence, and then she frowned. “Well, you could certainly _try_ to talk to her, but I don’t think she’s really in the frame of mind to listen…um. Where did he go?”

**_INTERLOPER, YOU ARE ON SACRED GROUND. GET THEE GONE, OR BE REMOVED._ ** ****

It seemed like the very _stones_ were speaking. Wordlessly, the unlikely trio of Sith Apprentice, Nightbrother, and runaway Jedi moved to huddle together for comfort. “Fragging _ghosts_ ,” Savage muttered, gathering Maul and Barriss under his arms and chin like a nuna hen gathered her chicks.

“ _GIVE ME MY DAUGHTER, OR YOU’LL HAVE TO REMOVE ME!_ ”

Barriss shivered, either with anger or fear. “Why does she not ask for her sons?”

“Because we’re _sons_ ,” Savage replied. “She’s always going to value a daughter more.”

“But I’m _not…_ ”

**_AS YOU WISH._ **

There was a terrible noise of squealing, screaming dogs, which started loudly but faded gradually as the tuk’ata retreated.

In the silence that followed, Barriss looked up from the brothers’ embrace. “Nilam says that we can stay as long as we need,” she interpreted. “Do either of you know how long that might be?”

“Mother only has so much strength as it is now,” Savage rumbled. “If we keep forcing her to expend more of it by moving around, she’ll have to let us alone eventually.”

“She’s in between us and the ship, however…and she’s gotten to us on the ship before…”

“That only happened once, brother. She can’t try it again now; the ship belongs to Barriss.”

The ship and, evidently, everything and _everyone_ on it; Maul peered closely at Barriss, and her dappled cheeks darkened before she hid her face against Savage’s arm. He had a few questions for her after his mother’s _timely_ interference into their lives, but…well, that could wait until none of them were as frantic as they were now.

“I suppose we could wait until cover of night. This isn’t Talzin’s domain, and her senses are going to be restricted to those of her hosts’. We might be able to run back to the ship.”

“I thought the shyracks were active at night?”

“Shyracks eat tuk’ata.”

“…I like shyracks now.”

“They eat everything they can get their claws on.”

“I like shyracks _conditionally_.”

“Good man.”

***

It was said, on Mirial, that Palurin’s ink droplets were the only thing a soul was allowed to keep in the afterlife. Granted, it was only said in certain places, and every tribe had variations on such a tradition, but it was truer than most non-Mirialans would understand. Barriss Offee had taken one look at him and seen a historian and an author, even before she realized how she recognized his face. He, in turn, had seen a healer, a scholar, and a dancer in her…a regular renaissance woman, even considering that she was (or had been) a Jedi.

He had no idea how she’d come to find companionship with two such…interesting young men. Maul he recognized; Sidious had paraded him about the Valley of Sith Lords about twenty years ago. Most of the other Sith had not been impressed – Sidious, as a general rule, was considered disposable, as Plagueis was not secretive about how he was eying one Count Dooku as a more malleable (and not to mention intelligent) apprentice. Maul himself had been painfully young, and spent most of the time trying to get Zannah to talk to him, as she was his favorite of the line.

Savage, however, was new around these parts; from the family resemblance, Nilam could guess that the two were indeed brothers, and they both had features that seemed uncannily familiar to Sidious himself. _That_ put a new spin on Plagueis’s constant lament about letting Sidious ‘screw around with those revolting witches,’ which made Nilam snicker just a little bit; he really _should_ have known better.

Still, the two were polite enough, and Maul seemed just a little bit excited to be _actually invited_ into a tomb in the Valley, though he kept his voice low, out of respect for the fact that Barriss was praying. He was taking the opportunity to educate Savage on the tumultuous history of Nilam’s time, and managed to be somewhat tactful concerning the matter of Nilam’s burning of the bulk of the Sith Archives. “Sith at the time had it…a bit too easy, Savage. If he had not done it, we would have grown too arrogant, and revealed ourselves before the appropriate time; in a way, Gravid saved us.”

“Did Gean see it that way?”

“Gean was too close to the situation. Hindsight and history have both vindicated Gravid’s actions, however.”

That was probably the most resounding compliment he was ever going to receive from a Sith; in fact, the boy had come closer to understanding his motives than most fully-fledged Lords, which was encouraging. Why had Sidious cast that one aside, he wondered…he was a great deal more educated in these matters than even Tyrannus.

Ah, but he had other questions which could be answered more quickly, and with less interpretation involved. So, leaving the men to their animated discussion, he knelt beside Barriss and made the appropriate salutation to Lady Palurin.

“ _How long have you three been on the run together?_ ”

“Not long,” she said, keeping her eyes trained on those of the statue. “Almost a month…I met up with Savage, and we rescued Maul from Lotho Minor, where he’d been living for years. We’ve been helping him get on the mend since then.”

“ _You’ve done well by him, then. He already seems happier than he was when he was here before…and,_ you _seem happier than you were the last time I saw you studying in the Archives._ ”

Her head swiveled in surprise. “You…actually go to the Jedi Archives?”

“ _I died on the Light Side, my dear. I can go anywhere I want._ ”

“Then why do you stay _here_ , of all places?”

“ _I visit here occasionally, because I want to be some form of comfort to my Sinya,_ ” Nilam shook his head. “ _She died on the Dark Side, and her spirit is tied to the tomb next to me. And it’s my fault; I should never have continued my Master’s line._ ”

“You mean Darth Gean?”

“ _No, I mean my_ wife _, Sinya Ziveri. She never deserved the name Gean, or to rot so long in the Dark as my training has forced her to do._ ” He sighed; it had been years since Sinya had even deigned to talk to him. “ _I thought that my love could reform the Sith, or at least get them to accept the Light Side as well as the Dark, to become more powerful by becoming more knowledgeable. Sinya…disagreed._ ”

“…I’m sorry. That sounds like a horrible thing to have to live with.” Barriss’s left hand curled on her breastbone, tellingly over the Wedding Pendant which Nilam could sense was already half-formed on her skin. Oh, the poor thing…she was going to take this to heart, wasn’t she?

“ _It isn’t too terrible. If I had not changed my mind, I never would have gotten to see her again. Like this, I can at least try to talk to her, even if she has nothing nice to say to me. I’d rather it be like this, than to have never met her_.”

She had no response to that, so Nilam decided to change the topic.

“ _So, is this some sort of mission the Council assigned you?_ ”

“No,” she replied softly. “I…left the Order.”

“ _I can’t fault you for that; not every path lies with the Jedi._ ”

“Says the former Sith Lord.”

“ _Even while on the Light Side, I had my issues with the Order._ ” Nilam sat for a moment, thinking. “ _How are things going with the Order, anyway?_ ”

Barriss shook her head. “I could go on for days…”

“Barriss? Is he bothering you?”

She looked back at Maul, a long-suffering smile on her face. “No, we’re just talking.”

“Can you ask him about the Commerce Guild installation on the planet? It might be a good place to resupply.”

She raised an eyebrow at Nilam, who had obviously heard every word. Nilam grinned. “ _That building is an eye sore. I’d be happy to help you burn it down._ ”

“We just want to raid it.”

“ _We can do that too…_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Darth Gravid and Darth Gean are canon...thank James Luceno for the unfortunate titles. Their non-Sith names and tragic backstory are entirely my fault.
> 
> I also managed to delete this file after I posted it to tumblr. So I re-copied it from tumblr, saved it again, and posted it here. And that's why the formatting's off.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a conversation is had in someone else's tomb, more armed robbery is committed, Nilam of Kailash is the Crazy Old Dude Supreme, and Maul rationalizes burgeoning Feelings with Sith machinations.

“This is a _grave._ ” Savage observed, a few hours into their wait for nightfall.

His brother tore his eyes away from Barriss – who knelt at the foot of the statue, still praying – in order to give him a flummoxed stare. “Stating the obvious, aren’t we?”

“On Dathomir, we don’t even have coffins. We either burn our dead, or the Witches do whatever they want with the bodies. This…this qualifies as a _mansion_ to me.”

Maul’s lips twitched into a smile that did not quite meet his eyes. “You haven’t seen some of the other tombs yet.”

“Do those have ghosts too?”

“Yes.”

“Are they as friendly as this one?”

“Not even close.”

“Then I’ll pass on the tour, thanks.”

“Aren’t there ghosts on Dathomir?”

“Yeah, that’s why I don’t want to go back.”

“Hmmm.”

They fell into an easy silence; Barriss didn’t seem to be talking with Darth Pregnant the Mortifyingly Named just this moment, but she also wasn’t acknowledging their presences. Savage would have thought that Maul would be drafting plans for their run toward the ship and (hopefully) around Mother, or for their attack on the Commerce Guild office, or meditating, or something. But he wouldn’t even sit with Savage by the coffin (he figured He Who Was with Child wouldn’t have too much against travelers sitting down if Barriss was allowed to kneel). Maul, however, paced incessantly, occasionally staring just long enough at Barriss to avoid alerting her to his train of thought.

After a few moments, Savage had had enough. “Something on your mind?”

Maul startled. “No.” He glanced over at Barriss, and then quickly back to Savage. “Yes…well, perhaps.”

“Memory giving you trouble today?”

Maul rolled his eyes, and sat carefully by Savage. “Do you think she can hear us when we talk like this?” he murmured, slurring his speech slightly so that the consonants were not as evident.

“She’s pretty deep in the mode, I think. But the Expectant One might snitch on you.”

A piece of stone from the crypt ceiling dropped on Savage’s middle horn. Maul held a finger to his lips. “ _Savage_. Whatever his name was, he was a _Sith Lord_. Do _not_ taunt the ghost or he’ll do more than warn you next time.”

“I’m not _taunting_ him, I’m commiserating. Poor dude could _not_ have chosen that name for himself.”

“ _Savage._ ”

“All right, all right, I’m _sorry_. No more pregnant puns, I promise.”

There was a snort of disbelief from somewhere in the corner. Fragging _ghosts_.

“What were you about to ask, anyway?”

Maul twisted his hands, looking over his shoulder at Barriss, who still had not moved. “Do you remember anything of what Mother said while she was in possession of you?”

“I know what she said to _me_. Something about how I need to eat better food because one good fart would throw her out. I regretted using the ‘fresher in that moment.”

“She’s absolutely right, you know.”

“I ain’t eating any roughage just so I’m easier to possess.”

Maul sighed, and looked at the heavens. “Mother…seemed to think that Barriss and I are…physically involved.”

Savage felt his heart sink into his gut. “Ye _gods_ , not this _again_ …”

Maul blinked. “Again? What do you mean _again_?”

“Um…”

“ _Savage_.”

“Don’t yell! She’ll hear you!”

Maul simmered, glaring at Savage. “Explain.”

Savage folded his hands together and absently tapped his mouth with his knuckles. Barriss obviously knew she had to renounce the Claim, as she’d forced Ventress to do so. With any luck, she could have just rescinded her avowal on Maul once he was completely recovered, without necessarily having to explain to him what was happening until after it was done, and they could have all laughed about it. However, a major recurring theme in Savage’s life was that he never _had_ any luck.

“Savage, I had to claim you to get Mother away from you,” Maul said at last, losing his patience. “I _know_ what a Blood Claim is. _Please_ tell me how Barriss claiming us means… _anything_ that Mother thinks it means.”

He cleared his throat, uncomfortable. “Well, for one thing, she claimed _you_ , not _me_ , because at the time I belonged to Asajj Ventress. Even Mother could not do anything with me that Ventress did not approve, which is why she used you instead.”

“And for the second thing?”

“Well…Barriss was only trying to defend you. And I’m thinking that, in _her_ culture, one can claim a person in order to ward off evil spirits without it necessarily being, uh, _procreative_ in nature. Am I right, Darth? Tap once for no, twice for yes.”

Two taps rang out on the coffin, right next to Savage’s head. He tried and failed not to twitch. _Fragging ghosts_.

“But in _our_ culture…”

“…she basically won herself the right to do anything she wants with you, which, _yes_ , usually means getting a baby off you.”

Maul stared ahead, his eyes wide… _floored_ , in a word. “So what you’re saying is that, essentially, we are married?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it _that…_ ”

“We are as close to being married as we can _possibly be_ on Dathomir.”

“In the _Night_ clans. In the Day clans they just have the girl kidnap a guy and call it good; don’t kill him or anything, just make him keep house and stuff.”

“She helped rescue me from Lotho Minor.”

“…Kriff, yeah, I didn’t think of it that way. But really, the whole thing was _my_ idea…”

“Why won’t she look at me, then?” Maul interrupted; reflexively, he was curling in on himself, looking _very_ young and _very_ confused. “Doesn’t she… _want_ me?”

…Well, _shit_. He hadn’t thought Maul would take it _this_ way. “I…” How was he supposed to break this to him gently? Hadn’t the poor guy’s hearts been broken enough? “I don’t…think she really meant to _marry_ you, Brother. She was trying to protect a friend, and she did well by you, but…she comes from a place where _both_ parties are supposed to willingly consent to this sort of thing. And _you_ didn’t have a choice, and she didn’t realize she was making a choice _for_ you, not until it was too late to do anything else to protect you.”

_There_ was the brooding expression Maul got whenever he was planning something, at long last. “No choice…no realization…thank you, Savage. That’s all I needed to know.”

…And, he was closed off again. Rancor spittle…Savage was going to have to keep a close eye out for any shenanigans. _Dammit, I never signed up for shit like this…_

***

Night on Korriban tended to be disconcertingly bright – seven moons, and all. It would have made it harder to avoid the tuk’ata, but Darth Gravid drew them away to one ridge of the Valley, while Maul, Savage, and Barriss made a break for the ship. It was suspiciously easy to silently board the ship, get the engines running, and take off; Barriss almost expected something to have snuck onto the ship, or _eaten_ it, but nothing of the sort happened. She still felt like jumping at every small noise.

Apparently, Maul’s assertion that even the Seperatists wouldn’t be foolish enough to build on haunted ground had been true, to a point. The Commerce Guild installation was _not_ on the planet, as they had thought, but on the closest of the seven moons; far enough into the system to make landing a little tricky, far enough away from the surface to avoid restless Sith ghosts.

Well, _most_ restless Sith ghosts. Darth Gravid had made good on his promise to help them. He had materialized next to the bridge window, and almost seemed to vibrate with excitement.

“All right,” Maul said, easing the ship into a cruise behind the second moon, in order to keep the Commerce Guild sensors from detecting them. “This has to be a quick mission, in-and-out. We haven’t time for sightseeing.”

“Not that there are any sights worth seeing on Korriban.”

“ _Shut it_ , Savage…Barriss, have you dealt with the Commerce Guild before?”

“Not directly…”

“ _The place is crewed by those ugly droids…maybe a few Gossum commandoes, but I’m not sure._ ”

Barriss was going to get very tired, _very_ quickly of translating for Gravid, but she couldn’t deny that he was astoundingly helpful. “Any chance you could help me draw a diagram of the floor plans?” she asked after relaying his statement.

He smiled. “ _Of course_.”

Two hours later, Savage was taking point on their incursions while Barriss and Maul protected his back from blaster-fire. There were a fair number of droids, but not as much as they really should have run into; Gravid had found the tactical droid, though what he had done to it was anyone’s guess. They managed to make it to the store rooms without a single Commando alerted to their presence…also Gravid, who had messed with the lighting systems as a distraction.

Maul went on one knee to hack the lock, mumbling imprecations about Gossum and their tiny explosives; a few frustrating minutes later, they were in. The store rooms were dark, but the brothers’ eyes glowed enough that Barriss could reasonably discern which way they were going. She managed to snag a holo-pallet and hurry after them.

The Commerce Guild specialized in the trade of luxuries; the store rooms were stacked high with boxes containing jewels, high-tech appliances, and expensive fabrics. Barriss could see no use in much of what they found – they were on the run with three mouths to feed and starting to grow low on foodstuffs – but Maul had a more discerning eye. He avoided the furs (‘sourced by Trandoshans…we’re already dealing with enough ghosts’) and the appliances (‘nothing we cannot do ourselves’), but found some boxes of jewelry (‘quick to make this liquid finance’) and liquor (‘you’d be amazed what some people would trade for a bottle of Serenno…not a bad year either’). They even managed to find a few crates marked with Trade Federation brands that contained some more useful things, such as non-perishable food, tools, and medical supplies.

Finally, it seemed that they had all they needed. As quickly as they could, the trio made their way back to the storeroom doors. However, by that point Barriss’s eyes had adjusted to the dark, and the script on one particular box stood out.

“Hold up for a moment,” she said, halting the holo-pallet. “Let me look at this.”

“Barriss…”

She studied the symbols on the crate, and brightened. “We could definitely use this. Are there any… _yes_!” Using the Force, she lifted both boxes onto the pile they had, and started it running again.

“What was that?” Savage asked.

“You’ll see! Just keep moving.”

Somehow, they managed to get inside the ship, pallet of goods and all, before their first squad of commandoes arrived at the flight deck. They took off in a flurry of blaster fire, but got outside of the installation and hit hyperdrive before anyone could activate a tractor beam. Darth Gravid again…she almost wished they’d been able to hang around and thank him.

***

“Get those security vids up! Somebody _had_ to have seen their faces!”

“Uh, sir?”

“Do you have them?”

“I have the vids from the requisite time, but they’ve been…tampered with.”

“How so?”

“Well, just look…”

“I AM HENRY THE EIGHTH I AM. HENRY THE EIGHTH I AM I AM. I GOT MARRIED TO THE WIDOW NEXT DOOR. SHE’S BEEN MARRIED SEVEN TIMES BEFORE…”

“Is that…Mirialan Punk Metal?”

“Discerning taste, sir.”

***

After the ship had been in hyperspace for a solid fifteen minutes, Barriss practically leaped from her chair and ran toward the cargo bay. Maul and Savage looked at each other, and then carefully filed out to see what she was up to.

She’d lugged the two parcels she’d grabbed at the last minute off the top of the holo-pallet and ripped them open; currently, she was studying a set of flimsi directions, glancing brightly up at them as they entered.

“It’s a bedframe and mattress,” she said. “Made wide, for Hutts…I got the requisite sheets, blankets, and pillows as well. Do we have a welding torch? We could attach it to the cargo bay floor…”

“And why, _exactly_ , did we need this?”

She frowned slightly at him. “ _We_ don’t, but Savage does. Sleeping on the ground and in the pilot seat has got to be painful; he’s always shrugging and rubbing at his neck. This way he can be more comfortable.”

Savage _had_ been rubbing bashfully at his neck, but he immediately put his hand down, splotches of red appearing in the yellow spots of his cheeks. “I don’t…really need that, Barriss. I mean, it’s _nice_ and all, but I’ve always slept on the _ground_ before and…”

Barriss straightened, and a mournful look overtook her petite face. “Oh,” she said, and her already large blue eyes seemed to triple in size. “I’m sorry…I should have thought…”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Maul said hastily. “Savage, she’s right. You’ve got to take better care of yourself, and this will make it easier.”

Savage glanced between the two of them, and sighed. “Fine. If it’ll make you happy.”

Barriss grinned cheerfully, and Maul’s stomach turned. “There’s probably a welding torch in the box of tools,” he said. “I’ll look for it.”

What followed was a merry couple of hours spent painstakingly assembling the bedframe. Well, it was merry for Barriss and Savage, who was used to simple construction and quickly got into the spirit of things when it was clear Maul wouldn’t object. Maul, however, took his time rooting through the tools, trying to suss out his feelings on the matter of his and Savage’s conversation earlier that day.

At first glance, the idea of keeping a wife was completely unthinkable. Sidious had raised him completely alone, save for a couple of droids programmed to be as devoid of personality as possible. He’d not been allowed pets, or friends, or even too much contact with Master himself, in order to keep his focus entirely on the dark side. A wife, especially a wife such as Barriss, raised by the Jedi as she was, would distract him from his purpose.

_And yet…_

Maul gnawed on one lip, thinking back _hard_ on his education. He was certain that Plagueis had had at least one wife for a short period of time; Muun family law allowed a parent to deed a spouse to their child if that spouse was not also the child’s parent, and Hego Damask’s father had had a great many young wives. There were also exceptions to the Rule of Two, students who had very little affinity for the title of Sith Lord but could be useful in other ways; Hego Damask’s mother had been such a servant for _his_ Master, Darth Tenebrous. And, of course, their ghostly friend Darth Gravid had married his apprentice (to a bad end for him, but that was beside the point). Maul could, if he played things correctly, have his cake and eat it too: retain both Savage and Barriss as different members of his inner circle, if he could convince them both to stay. That would be easy with Savage; Maul was all he had left, and the both of them knew it. But for Barriss…

_Choice. Realization. Consent._

She had to _want_ to stay with him, and she had to know that he _wanted_ to stay with her. That meant that he had to _win_ her, somehow, like she’d won him without even trying.

And _that_ was going to take some research. There was no way to get to Mirial without the authorities noticing, and from what he’d learned, she wasn’t terribly connected to the culture anyway. Jedi protocol was likely one of the things which would hold her back from such an attachment, and the only source he had there was Barriss herself, which rendered the thought of asking _her_ moot. And he couldn’t just lean on Savage for this sort of thing; the man was, understandably, _afraid_ of women, and the only reason Barriss seemed to be excluded from that rule was because she was more of a younger sibling figure than any sort of love interest. Talking to Mother was right out…but that left Maul with a frustrating lack of sources on just _how_ he was supposed to court someone’s affections.

A scratching noise sounded on the box next to him, pulling him out of his thoughts. There, written in a bold hand, were three words in elegant aurebesh. _Ask_ me _, dipshit._

***

This was better than those newfangled holodramas which Yoda had enjoyed so much. Three people who cared very deeply for one another? Two of whom were unintentionally married to each other, and starting to fall in love on top of that? _Pillaging_ and _piracy_ and who knows what else?

Nilam had died on the Light Side. He could go wherever he wished. And, in the six or seven hundred years it had been since his death, nothing so entertaining had happened to him as what was going on now.

What’s more was that he _liked_ these kids, he liked them _very_ much. And when Nilam of Kailash liked someone, he followed them. It hadn’t been the _best_ habit…he’d followed his Sith Master, after all…but if he could prevent some young people from making the same stupid mistakes he had, maybe he could stop kicking himself for what happened to his Sinya.

And if, in the process, he managed to scare them just a little – as he had with Maul, who shivered, grabbed the welding torch he’d been pretending not to see for an hour, and walked over to his companions – well, he was a ghost. He had to get his jollies somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nilam was totally keeping the conversation at the beginning muffled, because he likes DRAMA, darling.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a plan is decided, some rest is had, some advice is sought, and a plan falls apart almost before it can be put into motion.

It was the general agreement that the best course of action to pursue after successfully perpetrating an armed robbery against a Separatist facility was to find a place to lie low for a while.

_Where_ said place should be was not as easily settled.

“Has Yavin IV been much affected by the war?”

“The Republic has not been able to breach the lines that far as of yet, but I doubt Dooku has neglected it; it’s a perfect staging area for someone who doesn’t want to attract attention.”

“Felucia?”

“It’s an active war zone against the Commerce Guild, _and_ a favorite target of the Ohnaka gang. They’ll both be looking for us.”

Maul held his chin in one hand, squinting at the map. Then, he looked up at Barriss and Savage in turn. “Dathomir is only two sectors away.”

Savage’s reply was instant. “No.”

Barriss was more measured. “She can only get to us if we get off the ship, right? So, we don’t have to land. We can just hide in orbit for a while until the Separatists find something else to be angry about.”

“And it’s in Mandalore space, which is neutral territory, correct?” Barriss nodded. “So we should not have to worry about running into Republic ships.”

“That’s assuming _nothing goes wrong_. And frankly, I’m beginning to think that that’s too much to expect.”

Maul sighed. “Even if we _do_ somehow end up on the surface, she can’t hurt us anymore.” There was a muted note of warmth in the half-second he used to glance at Barriss in a gesture, but it was gone in the next instant. “So we don’t have to worry there.”

Savage growled in frustration, outvoted. “You’re underestimating her, both of you. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The younger Zabrak shook his head, already diverting their coordinates. “You worry too much, brother. It should only be another couple of days, and we’ll be away, you’ll see.”

***

From Korriban to Dathomir was a hyperspace journey of about a day, more than enough time to try and get some rest. And, they’d managed to weld the new bedframe to the cargo bay door, and make it up with the pillows and blankets that had been stolen.

Savage eyed it dubiously. “You’re saying that’s supposed to be comfortable?”

Barriss smiled, spreading the tooka blanket which Savage seemed to favor in order to make the bed more welcoming. “A little warm for my tastes, but _you_ should be able to sleep like a baby.”

“Babies don’t sleep.”

“They do when they feel safe.”

“And I’m not gonna feel safe that high off the ground, without even any hides.”

Barriss considered that. “What about the skalder hide you got on Florrum? Would it be dry by now?” Something that big should have taken at least a month to properly tan, but Savage had apparently worked some ‘male magic’ on the thing; Barriss had long given up on understanding Dathomirian arts.

“Yes, but…” He trailed off as he began to think about that. “I suppose I could get it,” he grumbled, trundling over to the skin in question. “It doesn’t even smell like sulfur.”

Tentatively, he slipped under the blankets, dragging the hide to cover him as he did so, and laying carefully back against the pillows so that he wouldn’t tear them with his horns. “This is…very soft,” he said after a moment.

“Too soft?”

He didn’t answer; after a moment, a deep, rumbling snore sounded from the direction where his head was.

“Out like a light,” Barriss said, chuckling softly. She turned and started toward her own bunk, in the process approaching Maul, who had been watching silently from the hallway entrance. “There should be enough room if you want to sleep here as well. Iridonian Zabrak like to sleep in piles; I can’t imagine there being much difference between their people and yours.”

His expression was indecipherable. “I’ve always slept alone.”

She shrugged. “And Savage has always slept on the ground, but…well, just listen to him.” The snore had grown into a content, continuous purr, which almost seemed a cousin to the ship’s engine. “Maybe you would be more comfortable with it if you gave it a chance.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps…but, Mirialans sleep communally as well, to stave off the cold.”

There was something in the way he said that which made her gall bladder do a backflip. “Yes,” she said, maintaining her composure. “In some tribes, amongst ourselves, that is true. However, I’ve woken a great many bedmates from sleep with my cold hands and feet, and the same would be true in this case.”

Maul blinked, and then raised _both_ eyebrows at her incredulously. “…How _many_ bedmates?”

She rolled her eyes. “Just my former crèchemates when we made blanket forts to tell scary stories. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“The gutter is a step _up_ from where I’ve been, as you _well_ know.”

His tone was bantering, but Barriss had seen enough patients cover emotional pain with dark humor to avoid being fooled. “I _do_ know. But, perhaps,” she nodded significantly over to Savage, “you can take another step up?”

It was a good note to end on, and so she continued on to her bunk. As she pulled the drawer out and turned down the covers, however, Maul’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Good night, Barriss.”

He’d never wasted air on pleasantries such as that, not once in her time knowing him. It wasn’t his style, and she’d come to accept that. And yet, here he was now, waiting expectantly as she stared stupidly at him. “Good night,” she said at last, curling under her covers. “Sleep well.”

His glimmering eyes followed her as she pushed the drawer back into the wall with the Force; she stared at the alcove above her, stunned, because for a moment she swore she could see their reflection in the roof.

“Too close again, Barriss,” she murmured quietly to herself, trying to force her stomach to stand still. “ _Much_ too close.”

***

Maul didn’t feel particularly tired, so he brought one of their hand-held analysis devices over to the bed with him in the hopes of doing…some sort of work, hopefully. Unlike his brother, he’d slept in a soft bed before; aside from his own drawer-bunk in the hallway of this ship, the Queen’s quarters on Naboo had been too luxurious to resist. However, the entire time he’d been there, there’d been a nagging feeling of loneliness that had not existed in his Spartan quarters on Mustaphar or Coruscant; when he did drift off, he’d dreamed simply of behind held, and awoken clutching a pillow to his chest, purring like his life depended on it. At the time, he’d been disgusted with himself. If he was honest, it _still_ disgusted him, how he _longed_ for something like this. He was supposed to have been above creature comforts, the perfect, solitary assassin who only clung to the shadows.

But, if he was to retain Barriss Offee as a member of his organization, following her advice would be a decent show of good faith.

So, he drew back the covers, and settled into a seated position beside Savage. In response, his brother curled protectively around him, still asleep, but purring even more loudly; Maul froze, instinct telling him that unnecessary touching was to be avoided.

After a few tense heartsbeats, however, he began to relax; whether it because of the vibrations emanating from his brother’s throat, or the softness of the bed, or the meaty smell of the hide, Maul couldn’t tell. But, he let out the breath he had been holding, and leaned over his device while he grew accustomed to the feeling.

A line of aurebesh which he had not typed was waiting when he laid eyes on the screen. _You’ve got it bad, kid._

He frowned. _I can try to improve, if you tell me what I’ve got wrong._

_Good grief, you’re un-socialized to the point of misunderstanding basic slang. It’d be cute if I didn’t want to rip out your Master’s beating heart and feed it to him._

_Is that not my job?_

_Ooh, yeah. And I can watch. This is the best decision I’ve ever made._

Maul rolled his eyes. _You said I could ask you for advice regarding Doctor Offee. You are Mirialan, and you were a Jedi once. How could I exploit the situation to keep her with me?_

_By which you mean, how can you earn her affection? And, well, you’re almost halfway there without my help; you already have her trust, and no little admiration._

_How? She doesn’t even look at me._

_And yet, she turns her back to you without fear – that’s not something she can easily unlearn, with a war against the Sith raging. That’s trust._

Maul snorted. _That’s just lack of fear. She knows I’m still in recovery._

_Okay, but she also is trying to hide the fact that she likes you more than she thinks she should._

He frowned. _That’s ridiculous. I haven’t even offered her anything._ Not that he had anything to really offer her; he was quite in her debt, and no doubt she knew it as much as he did.

_I can still read minds, you know. Stop talking yourself down like that, it’s tragic. It’s really not a question of what you give her, anyway…but that’s a good place to start, come to think of it. How steady a hand are you in the kitchen?_

***

The problem with soft beds and warm blankets was that when it was time to get up, they became even softer and warmer. Savage found this out to his own mild chagrin upon waking, still wrapped around a space that had been empty when he drifted off, but was warm from someone else’s body heat.

That realization was enough to sit him up. The sensation of cuddling up to a brother had been familiar enough that his brain hadn’t questioned it in sleep, but the thought of _Maul_ willingly sharing such an intimate experience was unimaginable. But it could not have been Barriss; he could see her climbing out of her bunk right now.

“What’s that you’re cooking, Savage?” she asked blearily, heading toward the refectory door. Savage blinked; he was pretty obviously _not_ cooking, but maybe she just assumed that it was him since most of the time he took that job.

He slipped out of the bed and tip-toed over to the kitchen, peering quietly inside. Maul was at their tiny stove, stirring some of the remaining skalder meat in a dark sort of sauce, with rice in another pan next to it. Barriss stood beside him, seeming just as befuddled as Savage felt to see _Maul_ , who tended to wolf down whatever was put in front of him without much regard for taste, meticulously preparing a meal. With one fork, she speared a piece of the meat, and carefully ate it.

“I had to guess at the spices,” Maul said, focusing on the rice for a bit. “There were a lot of them in the supplies we got, but I don’t know what would go well with skalder.”

“It’s good,” Barriss pronounced after a moment. “But where in the world did you learn a recipe like this?”

“…The ether,” he said after a moment, dryly.

She laughed. “Very well, keep your secrets. Thank you; this was very thoughtful.” Barriss dished out a portion of meat and rice onto a plate, and as she turned to sit down, she noticed Savage. “Skalder tangine!” she said brightly, holding her plate up as some form of proof. “As good as my Master might have made it. You hungry?”

Savage was _always_ hungry, so he gratefully accepted a plate…but he still stared at his brother all the while. Something was _up_. He just couldn’t quite put a name to it yet.

***

The morning (so to speak) went by fairly cheerfully; Barriss grilled Maul good-naturedly for the tangine recipe, and asked Savage how he slept. For once, she actually felt welcomed here, that she didn’t necessarily need to impress the both of them in order to stay on (or, well, alive). Savage was quieter than usual, but he was probably still just waking up, no problems there; Maul was discussing lesson plans for the day, since Savage was moving on to the next _ataru_ kata, which was fairly intricate. The time went on so quickly, they did not notice the proximity alarm until they’d already pulled out of hyperspace in Dathomir’s gravity well.

When that happened, however, Barriss dropped her fork.

Maul took one look at her face and practically jumped out of the refectory, scrambling toward the bridge. “What the _hell_ is a Republic destroyer doing _here?_ ” he yelled.

Savage’s eyes widened, and he thundered out of the room; Barriss followed, dampening her Force presence as much as she could, knowing _exactly_ what she was going to see out of the pilot’s window.

Maul fiddled frenetically with the dials, growling in frustration. “I thought Mandalore had some sort of treaty forbidding the Republic to trespass,” he said.

“It was a treaty drafted by Duchess Kryze of Kalevala, who has friendly relations with the Jedi. And that is Anakin Skywalker’s flagship. No doubt the Council worked out some sort of exception.”

“But _how_ would they know we would come here?”

“They were looking for us, and this is your homeworld?”

The communicator fired up, and a trooper’s voice filtered through the static. “Unidentified shuttle, provide your transponder codes.”

Maul didn’t even think of responding; he already had the coordinates coded in for another hyperspace jump, but Barriss stopped him from hitting the last button. “If we just appear out of nowhere and then disappear, they’ll clone our heading because we look suspicious.” She cleared her throat and accepted the communication. “Like hell I will,” she said roughly in what she hoped was a passable Mandalorian accent. “ _You_ are in _our_ space, Republican _shabuir_. Why don’t you give us _your_ transponder codes?”

The line went dead, but the star destroyer drifted without appearing to do anything. “Can you sense anything about what they’re doing?” she asked. “I don’t want to reach out; General Skywalker knows me personally.”

Maul and Savage both studied the ship. “I don’t think I sense Skywalker,” Savage said after a moment.

“No…but they are scrambling the fighter squads.” Maul deleted his previous coordinates. “We’re going to have to enter the atmosphere; it’ll be harder for them to track us there for the Jedi to sense us.”

Savage sat down, shaking his head. “I told you this was a bad idea.”

“Relax, brother; we’re not even going to touch the ground.”

“Just like we were going to hide in orbit until everything settled down.”

“Will you stop? It was a mistake, I get it. We’re fixing it.”

Barriss strapped herself into a seat anyway, bracing for a rough landing. Anakin Skywalker was fairly proud of his fighter squadrons; this was going to be a bumpy ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obi-Wan Kenobi's past week has been just him calling in every favor he has with every politician who's skin he's ever saved with every ounce of puppy-dog eyes he can manage. Of course Satine let Anakin into Dathomir; it's an outlying planet, not really part of their sovereignty, and it wasn't like Anakin was going to start a war or anything, oh no...


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which shit starts to get real, our protagonists are running from obstacles in both directions, Hondo Ohnaka uses a genocide as a recruitment pitch, yes he's here, yes he won't leave, and Nilam finds a kindred spirit (literally) in Qui-Gon Jinn.

“That has got to be the worst Concordian accent I’ve ever heard,” said Milks, the head comms technician on the _Resolute Jr._

“It ain’t Concordian, though,” Rex replied. “Sounds more like a _vod_ trying not to _sound_ like a _vod_. What’s the ship’s description?”

“Generic depreciated-to-hell-and-back Outer Rim turtle tanker…I think it registers as, like, five manufacturing years.”

“That could be our guys then, making General Offee talk so they won’t be recognized.” Rex looked up at Admiral Yularen, who nodded and made the call to scramble the fighter squadrons. “Get the General up on the line. He’s gonna want to know what’s coming.”

***

Kriffing Dathomir, _again_. At least the Nightbrothers hadn’t come at him with spears and crossbows this time. But, they hadn’t been exactly _friendly_ either, as they led him into their leader’s dwelling.

He ducked under the doorway – did _any_ of these guys clear five feet besides that _sleemo_ Opress – and found himself face to face with one Hondo Ohnaka.

“SKYwalker!” the Weequay cried, grinning toothily. “What a _wonderful_ surprise!”

“Hondo?”

“The one and only!”

Rage bloomed in Anakin’s chest, completely supplanting the confusion. “You are supposed to be smuggling arms to the resistance fighters on Onderon!”

“And, I did. You’re welcome.” Hondo nudged Chieftain Viscous in the ribs, earning a growl that he did not acknowledge. “See what I’m saying? I may play both sides of the war _and_ the law, but when it comes to an agreement, Hondo Ohnaka _always_ keeps his word.”

“Yeah, when it’s profitable.”

The pirate laughed. “Such a sense of humor! He’s young to be so cynical, am I right?” He tried to slap Viscous on the back, but the Zabrak sidestepped.

“It appears that our humble village is quite popular with the outside world these days,” Viscous began, ignoring Hondo as he flapped his arms to regain his balance. “Might I ask what brings you out this far again, Jedi?”

Anakin bowed his head respectfully. “I’ve come again for information. The man from your village we inquired about last time has kidnapped another Jedi. I want to know if he’s returned here.”

The head Nightbrother narrowed his eyes. “Brothers who have been Chosen never return. They know the Witches will follow them and kill whoever harbors them.”

“And if the Witches are dead?”

“Then the Brothers can come and work for me!” Hondo opined, gesturing magnanimously with his arms. “We have sign-on bonuses, advancement opportunities, and just between us” – he leaned into Viscous’s ear, risking getting an eye put out with a temple horn if the Nightfather’s sneer was any indication – “ _excellent_ dental…my man Hermes graduated from one of the _best_ online holoprogams and we only had to bribe a teacher _once_.”

Viscous was swiftly losing his temper, by the looks of it. “We have not seen him, Jedi. We do not speak his name anymore; as soon as he was claimed, he was as good as dead. And he knows that.”

“What about his brother, Maul? He wasn’t claimed by one of the Sisters.”

“The one you speak of only had one brother, who is dead. And I have told you all that there is to tell.” The Nightfather raised his chin to gesture at one of his guards. “Lead him away, and take this simpering monkey-lizard as well.”

“HAHAHA, you have a _magnificent_ sense of humor, but I left my monkey-lizards on the ship… _ouch_! All right, I’m going, I’m going!”

Anakin had to hand it to the Nightbrothers: they didn’t mince words. Within twenty minutes of his arrival at the village, he and Hondo were walking out side-by-side, gently escorted by warriors wielding maces.

“You seriously came here to do a recruitment pitch?”

Hondo shrugged. “The fellows I spoke to told me they had escaped from a Separatist genocide which took all their women, and it’s not like the Republic or the Confederacy was going to do anything for them. Piracy is a risky business, but it’s a good opportunity for many people who have little choice” – Hondo raised his voice so that their ‘hosts’ could hear him clearly - “and I _always_ divide my hauls fairly.”

“How _generous_ of you,” Anakin said, trying to mimic Obi-Wan’s diplomatic tone and only managing to sound sarcastic.

“That’s what I thought too! But, I suppose there is something to living off the grid on a planet full of hideous monsters…not something _I’d_ want, but these gentlemen might find it fulfilling.” Hondo wiped his nose theatrically. “So, where are you off to next?”

“That is none of your concern.”

“Let me guess, you’re going to go investigate the Night _sister_ village next…or, what’s left of it.”

“You are free to rejoin your men.”

“And we are free to follow you and loot the living daylights out of the place when you’re gone. Why not let us help you? The thought of that poor, innocent Jedi being held captive is _too much_ for my noble pirate heart to bear!”

“You held me and my Master hostage for ransom.”

“Semantics!”

“And did the same to a Sith Lord.”

“Free group talk-therapy!”

“You extorted and threatened a village of innocent people, including children, for profit.”

“And _left_ when it was no longer profitable, and we’ve not been back, either.”

Anakin was _this close_ to wringing the Weequay’s skinny neck like a dishrag, but Ohnaka’s hide was saved when his comm tweeted. “Rex?”

“Sir, they’re in the atmosphere. We’re in pursuit with our fighters, but they’ve got a head start. They should be near your location…”

He glanced up to see some hybrid rustbucket rocketing through the sky like it had the forces of several hells chasing it. To its credit, the cruiser was not nearly in as bad a shape as the _Twilight_ was, but it hadn’t the _Twilight_ ’s character either.

Ohnaka got on his own comm, yelling something in his native tongue – Anakin only caught the profanity. A moment later, the Ohnaka gang’s circular ship loomed in the sky, and sent a low-level deactivator blast at the hybrid; electricity coursed through the strange vessel, and it dropped out of flight like a switch had been flipped. Whoever was manning the pilot controls knew how to stick a crash landing, though; there was barely a sound as it came down within the rainforest.

Anakin whirled on Ohnaka, one artificial finger under the pirate’s nose. “You and your men follow close, keep your blasters set to stun, and _consult me_ before you take _anything_. You leave, _without question_ , as soon as my men arrive to back me up. And, _maybe_ , I will allow you to take the ship as payment for your troubles.”

Hondo made a show of looking at that finger cross-eyed. “Perfect!” he cried. “I’ll just follow your lead!”

***

“Well. We’re on the surface. How long before we’re off the ship?”

Maul and Barriss glared at Savage at the same time.

“Don’t give me that. I _told_ you.”

“Yes, yes, _you were right_ …we should have just risked Yavin IV.”

Barriss stood. “We can’t change that decision now. We have to get out of here before they…”

The ground shifted under their feet. The trio had time for one panicked glance at each other, before, with a sickening groan, the earth gave way under the shuttle’s weight. A short few seconds of free fall later, they landed, _again_ , the impact throwing them painfully onto the bridge floor.

“Is everyone all right?” Barriss asked, an instinct born of long practice; she herself would only have lingering bruises, but the boys had far more underlying conditions than she.

“I’ll live.”

Savage was chuckling darkly. “And now we are _inside_ the Nightsister’s underground village. Great. _Just great_.”

“Will you stop gloating and get on your feet?”

For fear of further cave-ins, they got out of the ship as quickly as they could, but the landing site at least seemed more stable than the broken ceiling several stories above them. The ship was not terribly damaged; they’d been hit with a deactivator, and the systems would reset in an hour or two of their own accord. The stores might have taken more of a hit, but there wasn’t time to inspect them thoroughly. They had to hide, and hope their pursuers would give up on finding them in this maze.

Savage shepherded them into the darker parts of the compound, keeping each of them within sight at all times. Barriss had to trust his judgment; her eyes were not the best for processing dark spaces, and as she had no knowledge of the floor plan of this place, she was utterly lost. Someone’s hand found hers, and she held it gladly; she had not been so unnerved by a place since she’d been a youngling trying to find the bathroom by herself in the middle of the night.

At last, they came to some sort of cafeteria; at least, it _seemed_ to be a cafeteria, judging by how the fluorescent mushrooms grew like tables and chairs. That indicated that they might be near the sleeping quarters, which would be as good a place as any to lose their pursuit…

Barriss’s stomach sank as a familiar green mist began to coalesce into a humanoid form in front of them. She’d _hoped_ Talzin would have expended too much energy to follow them; apparently, it had been a fool’s hope.

“ _Good evening, my sons. Have you any need of assistance?_ ”

Savage moved to stand between his mother and his companions. “We only wish to hide, Mother,” he said.

“ _Oh, I’ll help you_ hide _, all right…GHOST. You are on SACRED GROUND. Get thee GONE, or be REMOVED._ ”

“ _…Yeah. I suppose that’s fair._ ”

Barriss had time to wonder _why_ she was hearing Nilam’s voice when they had left him on Korriban. Then, the ground shook again, and an utter and complete blackness overtook her.

***

“That there’s a mighty big sinkhole.”

“Stay here; we don’t know how stable the ground is under our feet.” Anakin flopped onto his stomach, distributing his weight evenly so that it would be less likely to trigger another cave-in; it was an old Tatooine trick for dealing with quicksand, but it was easily adaptable. He crawled as close as he could to the hole and peered in. “Yep, this is where they landed.”

“Wonderful! I’ll have my men bring over the hover-boards to take us down safely. You keep watch for any scary Sith Lords!”

When he got back to Coruscant, he was going to have a word with Obi-Wan about his underworld contacts. A long word. A loud word. Chased with a stiff drink, if possible…

***

Savage awoke in an enclosed space small enough that he could barely sit up, and narrow enough that he could touch each wall simaltaneously if he outstretched his arms. Judging by the deep fuchsia coloration and the comparative softness of the ground beneath him, this was one of the Sisters’ sleeping pods. He’d been in one while awaiting the procedure which had turned him into the Opress…fun times, great memories, oh yes this had been a _brilliant_ idea.

A smaller, narrower body stirred slightly beside him. “Savage?” inquired a male voice feebly. “Brother?”

Savage gritted his teeth; obviously, Mother had managed to hurt Maul fairly badly, if his voice sounded this frail. “I’m here,” he said gently, turning to inspect the damage.

Grey eyes glittered in the gloom…kind eyes, soft eyes, _not Maul’s_ eyes. “I thought you were dead,” Feral said, tearing up. “I thought you’d left me forever.”

***

Maul cut himself out of the stifling pod in which he had been left to await his fate; Mother had made a mistake in letting him keep his lightsaber. Systematically, he began to hunt for his companions. Surely they had not been killed. Mother had other uses for them. She would _not_ be so _wasteful_ as to kill her last remaining family.

“Savage?” he whispered loudly, crawling through the stem of the large plant which had been mutated to be hollow, and provide living architecture for the Witches. “Barriss? Can you hear me?”

“No…but I can.” Two eyes glowed green in the darkness ahead of him, and a small hand held a ball of fiery magic, illuminating the slight form of a Nightsister child. “The prodigal son returns,” she hissed. “He should have stayed lost.”

***

Barriss startled into consciousness, and found herself bound hand and foot to a hard stone surface surrounded by eerie green light. _Déjà vu_ pulled at her mind; she’d seen this place before, in Savage’s memory. Here he had been…mutilated, violated, almost ruined. She struggled at her bonds, feeling about her for her lightsaber, but it was nowhere to be found.

“ _Calm yourself, child…you’ve nothing to fear, not from me_.”

She bared her teeth at the ghost in a wild impulse, her heart hammering in her chest. “Get _away from me_!”

Talzin held up an insubstantial hand. “ _Peace, my daughter. I only wish for you to listen._ ”

***

Nilam could not enter the Nightsister cave again; Talzin had been right in that his very presence desecrated their idea of proper burial. Force forbid anyone should find peace after having died on Dathomir. And that left him with nothing to do but mill about aimlessly, watching as a bunch of Weequay pirates and, later, human soldiers arrived near the sinkhole site in order to do nothing but mill about aimlessly.

“ _Well this sucks_.”

“ _You must be new to this sort of thing, my friend_.”

Oh, so this Jedi had a ghost too? “ _I’m nowhere near new_ ,” he replied to the tall human man who had materialized next to him, clad in the time-tested garb of the Jedi Master. “ _I’m just not used to being barred from going anywhere. And my friends are caught in the Witches’ web; I cannot do anything but wait and trust them_.”

The human man nodded sadly. “ _My situation is much the same. The young man you see here is the Chosen One; I’ve made it my task to try and guide him to his destiny, but he and his Master have the hardest time hearing me._ ”

Nilam raised his eyebrows. “ _The Chosen One? Well…that certainly explains a few things about Sidious’s behavior._ ”

“ _…Sidious? You know the Dark Lord?_ ”

“ _Not personally, but I’ve come into close contact with the effects of his work_.” Poor Maul; the boy might have had a chance to grow up normally if Nilam had succeeded in ending the Sith line.

The human set his jaw grimly. “ _As have I. He’s set his sights on Anakin as his new Apprentice._ ”

“ _And abandoned Maul in the process._ ” Nilam thought; there _had_ to be a way to keep this whole affair from escalating. “ _Are you forbidden from entering the Nightsister compound as well?_ ”

“ _Not that I am aware of._ ”

“ _And this boy…is he somewhat corrupted by the Dark Side? Incapable of hearing someone from the Light, but listens to the whispers of the Darkness?_ ”

The other man seemed quite perplexed, and not a little bit distrustful. “ _He has visions of the future, but the future is always emotion, so_ …”

“ _I might have an idea. Would you like to trade dance partners for a few hours?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Milks is my OC. Yes it is a dumb name. Yes, he got it in dumb fashion. No, his brothers won't call him anything else. He deserves it.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a heart-to-heart is had, two more pathetic lifeforms are picked up, Anakin Skywalker plays "blink and you lose" with a ghost, the clones have a headache, and Hondo Ohnaka is cheated out of yet another payload.

“I AM NOT YOUR DAUGHTER!”

The ghost clicked her tongue. “ _Technically, you are by marriage…though a marriage that has not yet been consummated, I see. I understand that you entered the contract inadvertently, but you have made no attempt to resolve or renounce it as of yet, which is distressing. Tell me, do you mean to bear my son’s child?_ ”

Barriss plunked her head roughly against the table, hoping to wake herself from this terrible dream. “Absolutely _not_. I have every intention of renouncing the Claim as soon as he’s completely well; I only initiated it to prevent you from possessing him and erasing every bit of progress he’s made.”

“ _…That hurts, dear. My ways may not be your ways, but I have always had my son’s best interests at heart_.”

“Which is why, when he was grievously wounded and left to die, when _you_ have the ability to tell where he is at all times and could have rescued him, you let him rot on a trash planet for twelve years.”

The ghost narrowed her eyes; Barriss’s shaft had struck true. “ _As I said…our ways are not your ways. I could never have justified expending those sorts of resources upon a man._ ”

“You are the _Nightmother_. You could have done whatever you wanted…like you did with Savage.” So, Talzin wanted to talk, did she? “If being brought up as a breeding slave, forced to raise a baby in the middle of childhood, and brainwashed to the point that I would kill my own sibling at the behest of a total stranger is the treatment I could expect as your child – or for _my_ children – then I’ll pass on the honor, thanks.”

“ _Dathomirian men are little more than beasts, slaves to their passions; one has to raise them with an iron fist to protect oneself and, in the end, their own worthless lives._ ”

Barriss thought of Maul with his perfect diction even in the midst of madness, of Savage with his gentle pats on the top of her head, of the both of them smiling and talking while filing each other’s horns. “If you’d ever cared to know them, you’d know they are _nothing_ like beasts. But fine,” she said with a huff as the ghost began to argue the point. “What about Asajj Ventress? She is your ‘daughter’, yes? Could you not have rescued her from slavery?”

“ _It was the spirits’ task for her, to walk amongst the outsiders and return. It is how she became a Ventress._ ”

“It was how she became a bitter and disillusioned woman who routinely martyrs herself for the good opinion of a man, hardly something I’d think you’d want her to aspire to.”

Talzin bristled. “ _I helped her get revenge on Tyrannus_.”

“At the cost of one son’s mental health and the other son’s _life_.”

“ _That is their PLACE!_ ”

“Not with me. _Never_.” Barriss stared the ghost down, baring her teeth. “I have no children, and yet I know I would lay down my life before allowing them to be hurt as your children have been hurt. It is a compliment when you say your ways are not mine.”

Talzin studied her for a long moment. Then, the bonds loosed from her hands and feet.

Barriss sat up like a shot, looking around the altar frantically, before beholding her lightsaber in the ghost’s hand.

“ _It’s a bitter realization, having been considered progressive in one’s youth only to look true progress in the face. I was pressured to kill Savage at birth; had I not grown more Force-sensitive by carrying him, where there not the possibility that his future mate would reap the same benefit, I might have been overruled. And my twins…I made the mistake of allowing the father back into my bed, in hopes of becoming powerful enough to be his apprentice. He spurned me, and for a great many years, I have hoped for revenge._ ”

The lightsaber dropped, and Barriss caught and clutched it to herself, eyes still on the specter.

“ _You are an odd sort of woman, my dear, but a fierce one. Allya was like you; determined, loving, far too much for the Jedi Order to handle. Perhaps you will succeed where I have not._ ” Talzin dissipated into the mist. “ _Go to your left, child. I will draw the attentions of those who hunt you._ ”

Barriss did as she was bid, but her eyes remained on the mist until she turned a corner, just in case Talzin changed her mind.

***

The depths of the underground compound rang with a deep, dark sort of laughter, and the comms fizzled.

“Ah, great.”

“What’s the matter, Fives?” Anakin asked, hoping he looked as cocky as he was forcing his voice to sound. “Scared of ghosts?”

“Nah, it’s just way above my pay grade, sir, all these witches and magic and _BANTHA POODOO_ , WAS THAT A _BAT?!_ ”

A massive chirodactyl flew directly over their heads, making for the hole in the ceiling. Anakin suppressed a shudder; had to look brave for the men. “That’s nothing. I’ve flushed out gundark nests before.”

“That’s wonderful to know sir,” Jesse said. “You wouldn’t mind going first, would you?”

***

Maul sank into a defensive stance; the ‘hallway’ was tight, but he’d fought in closer quarters before.

The girl observed him, and rolled her eyes. “Sir, I’m twelve years old,” she said frankly. “Do you really think I’m going to challenge a more experienced warrior when I’m only barely learning magic?”

“You threatened me.”

“No, I said you should have stayed lost. This place is dead, and the dead keep it.”

Slowly, he straightened again; she was only a child, and killing a child without reason was beneath him. “ _You’re_ not dead.”

“But I should be.”

“We have that in common.”

“And little else.” The strange little girl turned her back abruptly on him, making for the outside.

“Wait…what is your name?”

She didn’t even pause or turn her head. “What do you intend to do with it?”

“…Refer to you by it?”

“And what would that accomplish?”

“We would be introduced.”

There was a soft snort. “Quaint.”

“Madame,” she was twelve years old, but somehow the honorific still fit her. “…Please. I’m trying to find my brother and my…my mate. They are in here somewhere. Have you seen them?”

The child stopped, tilted her head to one side, and pivoted expertly on one foot to stare inscrutably at him.

“…Your brother is in that one,” she said at last, gesturing to the door of the pod right beside her. “Your mate is in a private audience with your mother. It is a great honor, for an off-worlder.”

“I doubt it’s meant as an honor.”

“You don’t know your mother very well, then.”

She stood to one side, and Maul crept up beside her, never breaking eye contact as he slit the pod door open with his lightsaber. If she was anything like he had been at that age – and, painfully, she very much was – then she’d be on his exposed neck before he could say another word. It was best to be careful.

“Brother?”

It was a relief to hear Savage’s voice, though he dared not look at him to acknowledge him. “I’m here.”

“Brother… _he’s alive_. You have to help me get him out.”

***

“ _Love_ what Grievous did to the place.” Tup brushed a bit of rubble from a pile, revealing what had once been a statue, carved into living wood. “What on earth did these ladies do to deserve this?”

“If we’re talking in general, I could give you several lists,” Anakin muttered. “If we’re talking about why they deserved this from Grievous _specifically_ …I have no idea. From what I’ve been able to figure, they were silent allies to the Confederacy, good ones.”

“Maybe they rebelled?”

Rex grunted. “Onderon is rebelling. They haven’t torched _them_ to ash.”

“Not _yet_ ,” Jesse replied grimly. “Kriffing tinnies…oh. G’day.”

The shade of Mother Talzin inclined her head reverently. “Good day to you as well, my honored guests.”

***

Feral was _alive_. _He was alive_. Savage poked his fingers raw on his own horns, _so certain_ that it was a dream, but it _wasn’t_. The brother he had so loved growing up was _alive…barely_ , but he was breathing.

For a moment, he was overjoyed beyond anything else. He reached down to cup Feral’s face, his own tears rolling down his nose and cheeks and landing in his brother’s eyes. “My brother, I’m so sorry…”

“I’m the one who should be sorry; it was because of my weakness that you…”

“You. Are not. Weak,” Savage growled. “I was weak. I did what they told me to do…I couldn’t even fight…”

“But you did. I saw.” Feral smiled up at him, crying almost as hard as Savage was. “You have nothing to apologize for, my brother.”

“Nor do you.” Savage pulled away, glancing about him. “Come. We must leave. You will meet our other brother, and our friend, and stay with us, away from this gods-forsaken place.”

Feral remained disconcertingly still. “I cannot…move, brother. I cannot even sit up.”

Deep in Savage’s brain, he remembered the terrible crunch of his brother’s neck under his fingers; the tears welled up again, and he patted Feral’s arm as gently as possible. “It’s all right. Maul’s on his way; we can carry you to Barriss, she’ll…”

A red lightsaber blade cut through the door, and Savage almost starting sobbing.

***

“You are not here for information again, are you, young Skywalker?” The ghost’s eyes flickered over his body appraisingly. Anakin cringed; he knew the expression of a sex trafficker when he saw it.

“No,” he growled, unthinkingly bringing his lightsaber into a block position. “I’m here to bring your sons to justice.”

She blinked innocently. “For what crime?”

“Kidnapping, grand theft aero, murder of Jedi, regicide…the list goes on.”

Talzin had the _nerve_ to laugh. “ _On my world, we call those accomplishments_.”

“Well, on _our_ worlds, we call those high crimes. Stand aside.”

“ _Or what, you’ll kill me?_ ” She smirked. “ _Been there, done that._ ”

The ceiling rumbled ominously.

***

When Barriss caught up with the brothers, they were not alone. Somehow, they’d managed to cut some sort of stretcher out of a living plant, and they carried it between them at Savage’s waist-level, Savage in front, Maul in back.

The run into which she broke was instinct; she’d only barely thought of hurrying to help them, before she found herself looking down at the face of yet another Nightbrother, one she found she recognized. “ _Feral_ …he’s alive?”

Savage nodded. “He’s alive.”

“Winged _Goddess_ , is that _all_ you have to say?”

The child’s voice came from near Barriss’s elbow. She shrieked and jumped away, ready to ignite her lightsaber before Maul’s voice stopped her.

“It’s all right, she won’t harm you.”

The girl peered at her. “Your face is as green as a ghost. Is she really your…”

“ _Yes_ ,” Maul said quickly grabbing the girl by the arm. “Now, where were you saying our shuttle was?”

She shrugged out of his grip with a frown. “Don’t _touch_ me…to the left.”

Barriss felt like tearing her headscarf. “Do we really trust a witch to get us out of here?”

“That’s what I said!” Savage put in over his shoulder.

Maul sighed. “Do we have any choice? I don’t know about you two, but I was unconscious when we were dragged down here.”

There was a tremor down the hall, and the walls shook; Savage and Maul braced, and in yet another doctor’s instinct, Barriss threw herself over the stretcher to help steady it. “Right, no other options. Lead on.”

***

“Sir, we’ve got to go! If she brings the roof down, we lose our exit!”

Mother Talzin smiled. “ _Such a shame_.” The tunnel from which they had come caved in. “ _Such a terrible shame._ ”

“SIR! Snap OUT OF IT!” Rex was at his side, bawling in his ear.

Anakin snarled, breaking away from the tense staring contest. “Can you see another way out?” he yelled. 

“… _There_ , sir. To our right!”

“Let’s go then! Keep close, or she’ll pick you off.”

***

“Where did these guys lay hands on such _nice_ booty?” yelled Hondo’s second cousin Saburu. “This is ten-year-old Serenno…the Count himself would want this in his cabinet.”

“I dunno, but we’re taking it. Mitsi? Bishu? You got this tin can started up yet?” His answer was a promising grumble from the engines. “Perfect!”

“Indeed.”

In a trice, Hondo was picked up from behind; he managed to watch a red-and-black blur rush the hallway leading to the bridge before he was heaved bodily out of the open cargo bay doors. Saburu landed on top of him a moment later.

“Oh, _come on_!” Hondo screamed. “Haven’t you heard of salvage rights?”

“Salvage _this_!” Poor Pilf flew out of the doors, squawking his dear little head off as he latched onto Hondo’s shoulder.

“HEY! That is NO WAY to treat an innocent animal! You come here and face me like…OOF!”

Bishu hit his stomach, knocking him down again. Mitsi soon followed, screeching the foulest of imprecations. By the time they recovered, the repulsors had flared, and the ship lurched into flight before their very eyes.

Seconds later, the strike team Skywalker had taken appeared in a different tunnel from the one where they left, covered in dust. Skywalker ran screaming toward the opening in the ceiling, reached up to do some sort of Jedi grabbing magic (Hondo was an expert, he could tell by the hand motions). When that proved fruitless, he swore so prodigiously in Huttese that Mitsi stared in open-mouthed awe.

“…Say, Jedi…you single?”

***

Master Jinn sat invisibly by Nilam’s side as the ship went into hyperspace, nodding at the odd group of companions as they clustered around the gigantic bed welded incongruously to the cargo bay floor.

“ _He listens rather well for one reared in the Dark_ ,” he said, nodding at Maul as he rushed past them to join the others, having set the autopilot. “ _I only had to whisper in his ear about how alike he and the girl are; he didn’t hear me, not really, but he went against his first instinct to goad her into a fight. I didn’t even need to help the others._ ”

Nilam nodded. “ _And yours has a head of adamant, but he listens to his soldiers, and_ they _listen to their instincts. And their HUDs, which can be easily influenced._ ”

“ _That is true. If only he did not isolate himself as much as he does._ ”

“ _No living person is ever truly alone, Qui-Gon. If the soldiers aren’t there to hear, perhaps someone else will listen._ ”

The Jedi considered that, and smiled. “ _I have just the person in mind._ ”

Nilam bowed his head. “ _May the Force be with you, Qui-Gon Jinn._ ”

“ _And with you, Nilam of Kailash…or would you prefer Darth Pregnant?_ ”

“ _…You are one of Yoda’s, aren’t you._ ”

Qui-Gon grinned, and faded away.

“ _That’s a yes if I’ve ever heard one. Insolent little jackanapes…probably didn’t even_ try _to help the others so he could flirt with the witch ghosts. Apples and trees and whatnot…_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, the mission briefing on THIS one is going to be intense...


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Anakin gets in a fight, Obi-Wan is asleep on his feet and doesn't care, Feral makes observations, the trio-become-quintet reach a safe hiding space, and Merrin makes a reveal that she didn't know was a reveal because no sane person would keep something like this secret.

Even in the blue of the hologram, Obi-Wan could see the dirt streaks in Anakin’s hair and on his clothes. His tall form was bent over the comm unit, twitching eyes glaring menacingly at what Obi-Wan assumed was his hologram’s eye level.

“They _got away_.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Maul and company were on Dathomir?”

“ _Were_. They _left_. And that _witch_ nearly dropped the roof on us.”

“…Pardon me? I thought the Nightsisters were all but dead.”

“ _They are_.”

Somewhere in the background, just in range of the microphone but out of holoprojector range, a familiar voice rang through. “Is that Kenobi? HEY, KENOBI!”

Anakin rolled his eyes. “We’re BUSY TALKING, for kriff’s sake…no, _get away!_ ”

The picture jostled, and Hondo Ohnaka’s image replaced Anakin’s, the pirate apparently running desperately for his life without batting an eye or even adjusting his breathing. “KENOBI! YOU OWE ME _BIG TIME_! First Ventress, and then your apprentice promised me a cut of some SERIOUS LOOT, and now I’ve driven ALL THE WAY TO DATHOMIR without even gaining a single recruit!”

“GIVE IT BACK!” The picture jostled again, bringing up Anakin’s steadily souring expression. “The _Junior_ tried to clone their trajectory, but they jumped in the atmosphere like the maniacs they are and GET AWAY OR I’M HITTING YOU WITH THE METAL HAND!”

“I WANT DAMAGES!”

“POOR CHOICE OF WORDS!” A ‘thwack’ sounded off-projector, and Anakin jogged away from the scene of the crime, his face twisted enough to curdle blue milk. “Did you find any leads, Master?”

“Not enough to go on…can you put Hondo back on?”

“…Are you for kriffing _real_?”

“ _Language_ , Anakin. He’s a business associate, at least relay my question to him. Hondo?”

“I WAS GROWING THAT BEARD OUT, YOU BASTARD!” Something struck Anakin in the middle, and the picture skidded and jumped as the Weequay fumbled the recorder several times in an effort to catch it, before putting it right beside his face to examine his own image. “Insensitive mammalians have NO RESPECT for how long it takes to grow one of these things…”

“I do, Hondo. Incidentally, what sort of loot was taken from you this time?”

Hondo shrugged. “The usual sort of things you get from Commerce Guild stores, _if_ you are immoral enough to even _think_ of stealing, like those _terrible_ louts whom I should have given respectable jobs when I could have.”

“I see…but, are you sure it’s Commerce Guild?”

“Saw the logo myself, Kenobi.”

“Thank you, Hondo. Do give the recorder back to Anakin before he does something to you which I regrettably cannot discourage.”

Anakin’s knuckle snapped audibly enough to be heard out of projector range, and Hondo smiled defensively. “Of _course…_ THINK FAST!”

“ _Oof!_ ”

The image tumbled sickeningly as the projector was presumably thrown. It landed at ground level, recording a marvelous display of Anakin’s boots as he ran off. There was a sigh, and Captain Rex picked the thing up and extended the hologram range.

“Anything else left to report, sir?”

“Not unless Hondo ends up dead… _Anakin_ , Put Him Down This Instant!”

Anakin had Hondo by the neck with both hands – Weequay were harder to choke using only physical force because of their plated skin, but with the way Hondo’s legs were kicking, he could deal Anakin some serious damage. The young Jedi was about to retort something sarcastic, when, off to Obi-Wan’s left, two Nightbrothers emerged from what was left of the foliage. They took in the scene with stereotypical stoicism, looked at each other, and fiddled bashfully with their weapons.

“Umm…so, you said you had dental?”

“…You WERE listening!” Hondo grinned and extended his arms in a welcoming gesture, even from where he hung from Anakin’s hands.

Obi-Wan was pretty sure other things happened after that, but he did not watch, as he was too busy folding his arms, laying his head down in them, and trying to decide whether he should cry, scream, or laugh hysterically in front of the _Negotiator’s_ bridge crew.

***

After being paralyzed from the neck down for gods only knew how long, sustained by Nightsister magic only because he was apparently useful for certain experiments, and left almost alone in the compound because he registered as deceased on droid scanners, Feral had been pulled from his sleeping pod by the older brother he had thought dead and dragged into an entirely new place. Some sort of off-world transport, by what he could tell of the ceiling; it smelled fairly clean, and he could feel something soft beneath his head. And that was the extent of his world experience anymore: what was directly beneath or above his head.

Savage now tried to occupy that space as much as possible; Feral could see him shaking around quite a bit, so he assumed they were taking off from Dathomir. His brother kept up a litany of comforting things – purring, talking about nothing, lullabies from his childhood – but his voice was so changed from what Feral had known from childhood that all it did was fill his mind with a vague sort of unease. He was almost ashamed to admit it, but he was faintly relieved when Savage was shooed just out of eyesight and replaced with an unfamiliar face and a hand on his forehead.

“We’re in hyperspace, now, the flight pattern is as stable as it will get. Let me look at him.” Little Merrin was right: this woman _was_ as green as a ghost, and as cold as one too. Feral had had _experiences_ with ghosts, but his rush of fear could only be translated by widened eyes and, he presumed, quickened heartsbeats. “I’m sorry,” the woman said, rubbing her hands together, “we haven’t been introduced. I’m Doctor Barriss Offee, and I’m a Mirialan…don’t worry, I’m just as alive as you are.”

He cracked a smile, painfully. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

She shook her head. “You definitely complete the set,” she muttered, pulling a cylindrical object into view. “I’m going to need to feel your neck, and then put this brace around it to keep it stable. Let me know if you feel anything.”

“The magic will do that,” Merrin’s voice said, and Barriss flinched. “Mother set it herself.”

“She did, did she?” Barriss asked in a dangerous sing-song. “Well, we wouldn’t want her expending her energy in this way; she has a grand itinerary for a disembodied spirit, and she needs all the help she can get.” She placed one hand lightly on his throat, closing her eyes to focus. “Sweet Force, you’re still alive with this? Why am I asking, of course you are…Savage, cradle his head with one hand and his shoulders with the other, and lift at the same time…now.”

Feral winced, but it was only for a moment. The neck brace, when opened, could be threaded under the space between his brother’s hands and the soft thing beneath. It clicked around Feral’s neck, which restricted his vision even further.

“I know you can’t see me, Feral, but I’m going to do a quick Force examination to make sure you’re settled…yes, you are, as much as you can be for now…good grief, you have bed sores the size of my hand! How long has he been kept in the same position?”

There was a pause as some nonverbal answer was provided, probably by Merrin.

“I _swear_ , if the woman was not already dead…Maul, is there any clean clothing in the stores?”

“I’ll look,” said the Core-accented voice which belonged to the man whom Savage claimed to be their long-lost third brother. Feral was not sure what to make of him; he’d only caught quick glimpses of his face.

“Savage, bring me the cloth scissors from the medbay, quickly.”

“Right.”

Barriss leaned over to look Feral in the eye. “We’re going to have to cut your clothes off and lift you onto your side. Is that all right?”

He stared at her. “Why are you asking _me_? It’s not like I can do anything to stop you.”

There was sadness in her eyes, but also firmness. “I’ll stop if you ask me to stop. If you feel at all uncomfortable, don’t hide it…you don’t even have to say anything, because I’ll be able to tell.”

“…Okay.”

“Okay.” There was a noise of something sharp cutting through fabric. “All right, Savage, I need you to support his head and shoulders again. Here we go, Feral.”

He was lifted onto his right side, facing where Barriss sat; there was a disturbing sound of fabric peeling away from sickened flesh. Maul’s red face – so he was red? What a rotten round of luck for him – hovered in the background, and grimaced at the smell that suddenly hit both of their nostrils. “What is that?”

“Bed sores,” Barriss’s voice said grimly, sounding preoccupied. “Reason number one why movement-restricted patients have to have their position shifted regularly. The pressure limits blood flow to the skin, and the tissue begins to die without the appropriate nutrients.” She sighed. “There’s a lot of damage here. I need to heal these first or they’re going to be infected. I don’t think I’ll be able to do much with your neck tonight.”

“That’s…better than I’m used to,” Feral said. What was it about her and his input?

Maul straightened and began to pace slowly back and forth, and that was Feral’s only measure of time, as he assumed this doctor was doing whatever she had intended to do. Ten laps of the bedframe later, the smell began to diminish; twenty later, and it disappeared entirely.

“All right, let him down,” Barriss said, her voice breathy with exertion. Feral’s world tilted again, and he stared up at Savage’s strange yellow eyes.

“Can I dress him?”

“…Yes…careful…”

Savage looked up in alarm. “ _Brother._ ”

The soft surface shifted under the effect of a weight dropping. “I’ve got her,” Maul’s voice said. “It’s all right, Barriss, lay down.”

“…still more to…”

“Not right now. Today’s been a long day. Rest.” There was a heavy sigh. “I don’t understand. She’s done more before without fainting.”

Merrin spoke up again; Feral could not quite pin her position. “She said the skin was dying. Maybe she had to put a little bit of life into it to stop the process?”

Savage glanced in Maul’s direction, and nodded. “That makes sense...she said something about only needing to use a little of herself to stitch _you_ back together.”

There was another silence, another nonverbal answer, and then Savage looked back down at Feral. “Are you comfortable enough to sleep, brother?”

Feral almost laughed at him. “I can’t feel anything below my neck, Savage. Comfort’s the least of my worries.”

Savage caressed one of his temple horns. “Then I’ll stay here for the night.”

“I’ll stay as well; we need to shift watches.”

“Can I take first watch?”

“Child, you’re _twelve_. Lie down, go to sleep, and leave that to the adults.”

The soft surface shifted again. “But I’m not…” In a trice, Merrin’s tiny snores interrupted her objection.

Beside Feral’s ear, Savage laughed quietly, still stroking his temple horn. “You’re safe now, brother. Close your eyes.”

Feral complied, and drifted off to a bass-tuned version of the melodies from his youth, _still_ more confused than he had ever been.

***

The Confederacy had not done anything with Yavin IV. Maul did at least fifteen scans of the moon to be certain; there were no signs of current technology anywhere to be found.

He set the ship down on the night side, delicately taking the ship into one of the ancient temples, and shutting down every non-necessary system. Hopefully the two-fold strategy of concealment under stone and comm silence would shield them from any scans.

When he returned to the cargo bay, the others were still sleeping – even Savage, who’d managed to insert his bulk on the edge of the mattress, curled protectively around long-lost Feral. The little Nightsister, who had still not given her name, had a thumb in her mouth, while Barriss, in between her and Feral…was sobbing.

“’Soka,” she murmured. “I’m sorry…I’m…”

He reached over and lightly tapped her foot. “Barriss,” he whispered. “It’s a dream.”

She started awake, and slowly sat up, eyes wide as if she could not quite remember where she was. She was still trying to steady her breathing as Maul sat on the foot of the bed in front of her, catching her gaze so she had something to focus upon besides her dream. “You’re not there anymore, Barriss,” he said frankly. “You’re here.”

She nodded, slowly leaning over to hug her knees. “It’s been almost two years, and sometimes it still feels like Geonosis was yesterday,” she said, staring into the space in front of her and letting out a long, shuddering exhale.

“You’ve mentioned Geonosis before. Do you want to talk about it?”

There was a scant movement of her head from side to side. “It’s a long story, and the others need to sleep.”

Maul nodded. Naboo had had much the same effect on him; he could talk more about Lotho Minor, it seemed. “Do you think you can go back to sleep?”

“I doubt it.”

“Well then, we’ve arrived. Maybe we can locate some tea…or coffee?” He smirked teasingly. “For Doctor _Coffee_?”

Barriss wiped a cheek with the palm of her hand, smiling tearfully. “I _knew_ it. I _knew_ you’d find a way to get me with that eventually.”

“Tea, then.”

***

Merrin awoke with a strange, bright light in her face, squinting even before she sat up. The cargo bay doors were open; it seemed they had reached their destination, a warm rainforest world with a much younger sun and a much clearer atmosphere than those of Dathomir. She shadowed her eyes to try and see it more clearly.

They were mostly beneath a large stone building, in a cluster of many of the same type. The light of a large gas giant had just appeared over the horizon, illuminating the low-leveled ground floors of the buildings. Hence the light in her eyes.

There was movement from the hallway at the other end of the cargo bay, and Merrin turned to see Barriss of Offee, ghost medicine woman, hurrying over to the gigantic bed from the hallway. “Good morning,” she said in a chipper demeanor, as if she had not collapsed like a felled rancor the night before. “Sleep well?”

Merrin had, in fact, slept astoundingly well, and she didn’t trust it. Complacency had killed better Sisters than she.

Barriss took the fact that she didn’t answer verbally in stride, and leaned over the Opress in order to examine his broken brother. “Savage,” she said gently. “We have to move him.”

“Right,” he said, sitting up and patting the other man on the shoulder to rouse him.

“Just onto his side, like last time…there. Are you comfortable, Feral?”

“Where did all this _light_ come from? Savage, are you seeing this? It’s _beautiful_.”

Barriss smiled, and raised her eyebrows at Merrin. “There’s breakfast in the kitchen if you want some.”

She assumed that was where the third Nightbrother was. “That explains where you two went in the middle of the night. You’re fortunate to have a mate who cooks after copulation.”

Both the ghost woman and the Opress choked on air.

“ _What?_ ”

“Um…”

“We weren’t!”

“How did you _know_?’

“ _You_ didn’t tell her?”

“No!”

“You told _him_!”

“…He _asked_!”

“Why did he ask?”

“I dunno!”

“ _Maul._ ” The healer stamped her way back into the hallway.

“Don’t…oh dear.” The hulking Nightbrother glared at Merrin.

“…What? They’re obviously doing _something_.”

There was a clatter in the kitchen. “ _WHAT?_ ”

The broken one sighed. “I have no idea what is going on, and I don’t want to know. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Good call.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nilam of Kailash: Sometimes one has to brew the Tea, and sometimes one only has to sit back and sip it. *toasts the audience* Cheers!


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which an important conversation is had, our protagonists try to figure out just exactly where to go next without being dismembered again, Ahsoka is Having a Bad Day, and Savage's best attempts at avoiding matchmaking shenanigans are ignored.

There were times when a cold shower helped relax her, and there were times when Barriss felt like she would shatter the glass and mirror at the smallest provocation. This fell into the second category. So, she fell back on one of her more active coping mechanisms, drilling _soresu_ until she needed to go back to work. After draining what little energy she had left at the end of a very long day, she needed to recuperate in the sunlight anyway, and moving around a bit would help with that. So, she set a timer for the next time Feral would need to be shifted, set off to a sunlit patch of dirt just within shouting distance of the shuttle, and set to work.

For about twenty minutes, she was allowed her peace and solitude. She could go through the fluid motions of each kata, which in this context felt far more like art than anything martial, like the sword dances of her homeworld, showing how a weapon could be used for grace, beauty, and expression rather than destruction. _Soresu_ was the preferred form for healers because it was ironclad in defense, but that wasn’t why Barriss had chosen it as her specialty. Things made more sense when she did this, when she wasn’t fighting for every breath.

Of course, the tranquility had to be ruined when a red lightsaber met hers in the middle of a practice slash.

“You have excellent form, Doctor.”

She glared. “I’d have thought you’d prefer _juyo_.”

“I do, but I learned _soresu_ first. Darth Zannah’s tracts on the art are crucial for learning the saberstaff. You’d probably do well with one.”

“As _thrilling_ as it is to hear that, I told you I wanted to be alone.”

It was entirely unfair that Maul, fierce warrior and deadly assassin, had the eyes of a kicked puppy. “Barriss, I’m _sorry_. Tell me what I did that was wrong, and I’ll correct it.”

Barriss made some noise between a sigh and a growl, and pulled away. “It’s not you, it’s the entire situation. Every time I think I’ve gone as deep as it gets, I get dragged in further. Your brother and I rescued _you_ , and then we had to _heal_ you, and then your _mother_ … _oh_ , if I could only get my hands on your mother. And then there was Korriban, and then just yesterday there was the _Republic,_ and your mother _again_ , and your _other_ brother, and that girl…”

“Merrin.”

“…What?”

“Her name is Merrin. She told Savage in return for his skalder pelt…wants it to make armor or something.”

“Of course she told Savage.”

“Of course.” Maul spun his lightsaber idly in one hand and brought it into an opening _ataru_ stance. “Could we spar? We’re not going to get away from this by refusing to talk.”

She sank into a defensive posture. “Your move.”

He was going easy on himself at least; his attacks were leisurely and mostly seemed to be testing her footwork. “I don’t understand why you’re so angry,” he said after a time, leaning into one of her blocks.

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re the one who broke a plate.”

“I broke a plate because she thought we were…doing something we were not.” His gaze shifted uncomfortably. “She is a child in a culture that heavily involves such things, and I did tell her you are my mate. It was not an unreasonable assumption; it just took me by surprise.”

Barriss could feel the blood rushing to her face. “I am _not_ your mate.”

“Legally speaking…”

She broke off from the block and whirled her blade in a series of slashes, forcing him to back away. “I _did not know_ that I was making that sort of contract. _Legally_ speaking, to hold me to an agreement I made in error is entrapment.”

He brought down a chop from over his head, which she caught with a high block. “And that is why I did not confront you about it. I wanted to convince you to make the same decision willingly.”

Ugh, that _face_ …it awakened every nurturing instinct in Barriss’s healer’s heart, and she had to fight to keep her expression from softening. “You were _courting_ me?”

“In a way, yes.”

“Why?”

“Because…well…”

He trailed off, and they exchanged a flurry of blows. She ducked under a swipe of his blade to hit toward his legs, forcing him to backflip over her blade. He winced, and held his side, and she put down her guard to check that he hadn’t hurt himself.

He met her with a wicked grin, and re-ignited his lightsaber behind her, forcing them far too close together for her to disengage without hurting him. “Form III can be countered with Form VI.”

She glowered up at him. “You tricked me.”

“Easily,” he agreed. “I actually feel somewhat accomplished; you’re usually smarter than this.”

“You’re hilarious. Let me go.”

“In a moment.” His free hand cupped the right side of her face, his thumb running over her cheek. “Barriss…I know this wasn’t what you intended, but can’t we use it all the same? We have complementary skillsets, similar philosophies, and compatible personalities; an arrangement between us could be mutually beneficial.”

He was giving this obviously rehearsed sales pitch, using every diplomatic descriptor he could think of to sway her, and the entire time his eyes were _fixed_ upon her lips. Barriss had to smile. “It _would_ be, until you decided to do the Sith thing and do away with me once I am no longer useful to you.”

She had the pleasure of watching him splutter. “It’s not as simple as that. One doesn’t simply throw away an asset unless there is no other choice; usually, another purpose can be found for it, or it can be mended.”

“Like you were.”

There was a note of triumph in his voice. “Like I was.”

“But it wasn’t a Sith who mended you. What will happen when I am the one broken?”

He dropped the lightsaber in order to pull her closer. “I won’t let that happen.”

“But you can’t promise that,” she said, breaking out of his hold and backing away. “No one can. And that is why it is safer, for both of us, if we remain professional and unattached.”

She had intended to make her _coup de grâce_ here, and repudiate her Claim aloud, leaving him a free man. But, even as she took in a breath, her alarm went off.

“…Your brother has to be moved,” she said quietly.

“Savage can handle it.”

“He can, but I still need to get back. If I’m going to fix his neck, I have to make sure I don’t pass out again, and I’m hungry.”

“…I’ll be behind you.”

***

Upon their return to the shuttle, Feral was propped up into a sitting position with every pillow they possessed. A few of Barriss’s flimsi sabacc cards were inserted into the cumbersome neck brace, so he could see them and not Merrin or Savage. Barriss frowned slightly and hurried over, but apparently could not disapprove of what she saw.

Maul smirked. He _knew_ Savage could handle things.

“I call,” Savage said, laying down his hand. “Two pair.”

“Straight flush,” Merrin said proudly.

“Idiot’s Array.”

Savage and Merrin gaped at Feral. “You’re lying,” Savage said.

Barriss shook her head, reading the cards over Feral’s shoulder. “He’s not.”

“You’re _cheating_ then,” Merrin growled.

“I can only move my face. If anyone’s cheating, it’s the dealer.”

Barriss shook her head. “It’s just a streak of beginner’s luck.”

Merrin folded her arms. “ _I’m_ a beginner. When do I begin to get lucky?”

Maul tuned out the rest of the conversation, slinking into the cockpit. It was easy for them, all of them, to become accustomed to new people, but for him the amount of variables in the situation had nearly doubled. He hadn’t any experience in making friends; Savage and Barriss had come into his life more or less without his input. He needed time away.

A short string of aurebesh appeared on the datascreen under his fingers. _I’m back._

He blinked, and put away whatever vague intentions he had had of plotting their next move in order to type a reply. _You left? I confess I did not notice._

_I am SHOCKED, I tell you, absolutely taken aback._

Maul rolled his eyes. _Don’t toy with me, ghost, I’m not in the right frame of mind._

_…You do seem a little depressed, kid. What’s wrong?_

He thought of telling him about the conversation with Barriss, but…well, she could see and hear Gravid and pronounce his name correctly. If he wanted to get the full story, he could get it from her.

_I’m trying to figure out an appropriate plan of action. Now that I’m almost fully recovered, there is work to be done. But I’ve been out of galactic politics for more than a decade, and don’t really know where to start._

_And you’re asking the guy who’s been dead for hundreds of years?_

_You asked what was wrong, and I told you._

_…Very well. If you’re looking for a place to start, it would be in keeping away from the Republic scouts. General Skywalker has been pulled back to Onderon to pick up his Padawan from a mission, but he contacted his superiors. There is a legion surrounding Florrum, and a few units have been sent to sniff around the area of Korriban._

Maul bit his tongue. _How did they find out about Korriban?_

_Ohnaka saw the logos on the shipping containers, and one General Kenobi took it from there._

“Ken _obi_ ,” he snarled.

_…I take it you’ve met?_

_Once._

_What’s the objective once you meet him?_

_To hurt him like he has hurt me._

_And how badly is that?_

_It has to be comparable to being cut in half, thrown in the trash, and abandoned for a dozen years._

_…HOW THE HELL ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?_

_I found the meditations of Darth Sion fairly helpful._

_SION WAS NOT A ROLE MODEL TO WHICH YOU SHOULD ASPIRE!_

_I know. He was weakened when he allowed himself to fall in love with an exiled Jedi._

_…I know you can’t see me, but I’m slapping my face as hard as I can._

“Don’t do that. You’ll get a nose bleed.”

Maul jumped in his seat; he tried to play it off as a casual spin of his chair, but the arch of Barriss’s eyebrow proved he was not believed.

“I thought I heard screaming in here. It’s good to see you, Nilam. To what occasion do we owe this visit?”

There were a few moments of silence, and then the text began again. _Right, I forgot you can’t hear me. We were discussing strategy, my dear. You know more about the armies in this area than we do. Can you offer input on a destination after this one?_

She smiled. “Of course.”

***

Sometimes, Ahsoka felt like the Force actively hated her. Sure, her mission on Onderon was a success, but…well, Steela Guerrera didn’t live to see her world liberated, Lux was heartbroken over Steela, and Ahsoka _still_ had feelings for Lux, despite everything. It didn’t feel like a win, to her, but her smiling Masters patted her on the back anyway, proud of her and not knowing just how little she deserved it.

Well, Obi-Wan smiled. Anakin looked like he was about ready to cry. And, when he got Ahsoka alone, he made a big deal out of apologizing. “If you had told me what you were doing to find Barriss, I’d have done anything to help you. _Anything_. But, I’m sorry that you didn’t feel like you could trust me with that.”

With an effort, she did not roll her eyes; he really was trying, here. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, Master. You just…you’ve been through so much recently. I didn’t want you to worry.”

“You can’t stop me from worrying any more than you can stop the suns from setting. But that’s behind us. Your friend has been kidnapped by a terrible criminal; you’re being cut in on what we’ve learned.”

He’d wanted to bring her along on his newest mission, but, according to the Council, his newest mission was staying put for a couple of weeks of R & R, effective immediately. Ahsoka had no idea why, but Master Kenobi looked like he had a splitting headache, so she didn’t ask.

Instead, she just smiled and nodded when Yoda asked her if she was still up for guiding a youngling clan on The Gathering. “Of course, Master. I love Ilum; it should be a good break.” There was a niggling Bad Feeling at the back of her mind as she said it, the same sort of Bad Feeling which had told her to hug Barriss the last time they had said good-bye and which she had ignored to her regret. “But…can we take someone else as backup this time? I’ve heard tell of quite a few training missions that have gone badly, and I want to be prepared.”

Yoda pursed his lips. “Reasonable that seems. Have someone in mind do you?”

***

“I don’t understand. How can two people be mates and not mates at the same time?”

“Kid, keep your voice down; we only have so many things to break.” Savage flicked his eyes to the hallway; they’d somehow managed to avoid Maul and Barriss noticing how many watchers they’d had during their little ‘talk’ earlier, but it was a lot harder to hide nosiness at smaller distances.

“She’s claimed him, right? So what’s stopping her?”

Savage fanned his cards absently. “Where she comes from, love is won, just as names are with us. She claimed Maul by mistake when he was at a disadvantage and could not object; it would be as if you tried to call yourself a Ventress without ever leaving Dathomir or a Huntress without ever taking down a rancor.”

“…So, it’s like a lie?”

“Yes.”

“Huh…it didn’t seem that way to me.”

“That isn’t for you to decide.”

“Could we influence _their_ decision, though?” Feral asked.

Savage frowned. “No.”

“How would we even set about doing that?” Merrin wondered.

“I said _no_.”

“What do ghost women even like?” Feral continued, ignoring Savage.

“In my experience? Scented candles and blood sacrifice.”

“It’s as good a place as any to start. Is there decent wild game around here?”

“I can make the candles.”

Savage put his head in his hands. Children. He was surrounded by children.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tolkien's Legendarium is imported wholesale into the Star Wars universe for a throwaway gag, Maul and Barriss confront the issue of Kenobi, Nilam is a shameless shipper, Barriss panics, Maul panics, and everything goes right to hell.

Barriss had never had someone propose to her before – because that _was_ what Maul had done, little as he seemed to realize it. Nor had she ever had to refuse a proposal, or state that she and a person were better off as friends – because that _was_ what she had basically done, as surreal as the entire thing had felt. However, as little as she knew about these matters, she remained fairly certain that having a strategy meeting with the person one has just rebuffed was _not_ the way to go about things.

And the ghost just made things weirder.

To his own credit, Maul seemed to be taking things well, save for the fact that he was much quieter than usual. Nilam, however…

“ _Arda II is isolationist, and wants nothing to do with either side of a war in a galaxy it has long eschewed. It’s also a lovely, temperate planet, with multiple biomes and friendly natives._ ” He winked at Barriss. “ _Perfect for an extended honeymoon…_ ”

She glared, but Maul was already speaking, frowning at the text on his datascreen. “The Arda system is neutral because it is…utterly incomprehensible in the terms of physics. The moon is tarnished by the light of its star and constantly cleaned in mysterious ways, the star itself speaks and identifies as female, and Arda I is not truly a planet, but a large spaceship crewed by an ill-tempered, immortal hermit who complains about never being able to see his wife or children. And that’s just the things I learned which I could _almost_ understand from my one attempted infiltration.”

“ _You met Eärendil? What an honor._ ”

“I didn’t _meet_ him, he was sent to _banish_ me. And he did…he brought out some sort of lightsaber crystal, yelled at me in gibberish, and suddenly I was back on Mustaphar.”

“Which means, he won’t be welcomed back, and nor would anyone with him,” Barriss concluded.

“ _Such a pity; my friend Olorin might have liked you…but then, after everything Bauglir and his cronies pulled, I don’t know that I can blame them for being cautious._ ”

“What’s stopping us from using _this_ system as a base?” Maul suggested. “There are three habitable moons here, and the other two are only peopled by species not yet advanced enough for spacefaring. If they find us _here_ , we can simply jump away from the system, then circle back and land on a different moon.”

“That’s actually a very good strategy.”

“And, as it is comparatively close to the Florrum system, it would be a simple matter to lure Kenobi into a trap.”

Barriss bit the inside of her cheek. Nilam raised his eyebrows mildly. Maul awaited a response from them both, and when he did not receive one, he looked up at Barriss with narrowed eyes.

“You _said_ you would not dissuade me from my revenge.”

Nilam bent to send another line of type through the datascreen, but Maul did not turn away from her.

Barriss sighed, and took the seat across from him. “I’m not.”

“You said you only wanted me to delay until I might live to _savor_ my revenge.”

“I did say that.”

He leaned over onto his knees, his gaze piercing hers. “Did you mean it?”

“ _Barriss, he’s doing this to impress you. For pity’s sake, tell him you…_ ”

“I _do_ mean it,” she replied, ignoring Nilam for a moment…she had a feeling that he’d been double-talking them anyway, for whatever reason. Maul obviously hadn’t gotten that comment about a honeymoon, for example. She met Maul’s eyes steadily; he was testing her, not courting her, and she was quite capable of withstanding his tests. “I just don’t think you quite understand what you’d be getting into by bringing Master Kenobi here.”

“What’s to understand? I lure him away from the rest of the Jedi, and I enact my revenge. It’s really quite simple.”

“It is. In fact, it’s the same plan you had on Naboo, is it not?”

She said those words with care, but he still took them as a barb. With obvious hurt in his eyes, he sank back into his chair, turning away from the words Nilam was still scrolling on the datascreen.

Barriss sighed. “I’m sorry. I know it’s still a tender subject for you, and…well, that’s another reason I don’t think this is a good idea. You’re not in the right mindset.”

“Oh, and I suppose I should be _mentally balanced_ when I go about enacting my revenge, is that it?”

“That’s _not_ what I…” Barriss folded her hands together and pressed them to her nose, thinking as quickly as she could. “You are a hunter, correct?”

He frowned quizzically at her. “I suppose that is a logical conclusion to attain when you’ve heard my string of remembrances as many times as you have.”

“Then you will understand that, in order to properly hunt something, you have to study its habits and understand its motives.”

“And you’re saying that I _don’t_ understand the Jedi?” he sneered.

She took in a deep breath, willing herself not to feel fear in the face of his growing anger. “What lightsaber form does Obi-Wan Kenobi use, Maul? His specialty?”

“ _Ataru_ , of course.”

“It _used_ to be _ataru_ , but after Naboo, he transitioned almost completely into _soresu_.”

He blinked. “Why?”

Barriss shrugged. “He did not give a reason. Most of us assumed it was because his Master fell to you while utilizing _ataru_ , and Master Kenobi wanted a form with more defense.”

Maul’s eyes were distant, but they flickered back and forth as if watching a holo-ball match – Barriss realized he was re-examining his memory of the fight. “But he _defeated_ me using _ataru_. If anything, that proves his form was sound.”

“And that is why I think he allowed us to make the assumption he did. He never spoke about it in detail, almost as if he didn’t want to relive it.”

Maul laughed bitterly. “He should be _glad_ that he _could_ avoid thinking about it.”

“…But he couldn’t,” Barriss said, recalling the fight as she had seen it in Maul’s eyes, when she had healed his mind. “You saw it yourself. You killed his Master in front of him. To a Jedi, that is a crucial connection, to training, to tradition, to the rest of the Order.” Her eyes stung with the onset of tears, as Barriss could not help but imagine what she might have felt upon losing Luminara. “You might as well have cut him in half,” she said, willing her tear ducts to dry. “And he…”

She deliberately met Maul’s gaze once more; she could be dramatic, too. “He made sure you _suffered_ , Maul, as much as he suffered if not more. Now tell me: does that sound like a Jedi to you?”

It took a moment for him to grasp the full depth of that question, but Barriss could see the moment it hit him. “Kenobi _Fell_.”

“You _saw_ the rage and hate in his eyes.”

“Kenobi is on the _Council_.”

“…Yes.”

The sad expression had multiplied a hundredfold, and the testing tone he had struck faded into courtship mode again. “ _That’s_ why you left, isn’t it?”

Barriss set her jaw, and averted her eyes. “No,” she said honestly. “But I had seen the writing on the wall in other parts of the Order.”

He leaned forward again, bending his head to try and reinitiate eye contact. “Are you… _worried_?”

She floundered, unsure of how to answer that question. And Nilam, who had left off trying to talk to Maul in order to observe the conversation with increasing interest, smiled and held up two thumbs, like the compulsive meddler he was.

“He is already searching for you, and I have a feeling it’s because they have got wind of my association with you,” Barriss said at last, rising to her feet. “You needn’t lure him to you; he is already coming. Perhaps it is best if you let him expend his energy in a fruitless search, until the Republic can no longer justify the resources he is spending.”

“Barriss, you’re avoiding the question.”

She made as if to leave, but he caught her by the shoulder. “I have a _patient_ to attend,” she snapped.

“Then tell me what you’re afraid of.”

“I’m not afraid of anything.”

“You’re _lying_.”

“Let me go.”

“ _Answer me_.”

Her lips were upon his before she could think; his skin was as soft and pliant under her touch as it had seemed from a distance. He froze, and when she pulled away, he stared, agape with confusion, his pupils blown wide with a sensation he’d no doubt never experienced.

Barriss clapped her hands to her mouth, more terrified than she had ever known, transfixed by his magnetic yellow eyes, her heart beating in her throat. She hadn’t meant to do that. She had intended _never_ to do that.

After a moment that stretched into eternity, Maul stepped forward, and his head tilted tellingly. He was going to kiss her again.

And a second later, she was running. Out the door, through the hallway, straight out the open cargo bay doors without as much as a glance behind her when first Nilam and then Savage called her name.

She’d gotten too close. Too close. It was time to leave.

***

_No_.

Maul staggered after Barriss, a heartsbeat too late to catch her hand before she could flee.

_No!_

“Brother, _what_ is going _on?_ Where is she going?”

_NO!_

“Where are _you_ going? _Maul!_ ”

He could still see her, sprinting across the open temple grounds, straight for the jungle. He gritted his teeth and put his focus into following her; when the side-stitch he had feigned before caught him in earnest, he used the pain to speed his footsteps even more. He was still too late; she disappeared into the foliage before his very eyes.

He was about to dive into the jungle after her, but one gigantic arm caught him about the waist.

“ _LET GO!_ ”

“ _WHAT ARE YOU DOING?_ ”

He flung his head behind him, and his horns cracked against someone else’s. He was released, and off like a shot.

“ _MAUL!_ ”

_Always remember I am Hunter_.

Barriss was running blind; he could plainly see every branch she’d broken, every twig she’d snapped in her flight. No doubt she’d had some training in avoiding detection, but she was not using it to the fullest extent possible, overcome with…with that emotion he had felt in her, when she…

His lips _burned_ with the memory, and he nearly lost her track in the distraction. He shoved the thought aside; he had to find her first.

The trail got more intricate and harder to follow as he went along; she was regaining her composure. Frantically he doubled his pace. He would _not_ lose her.

He was going so fast that when he came upon a river, he nearly toppled into it.

Maul breathed deeply, trying to think like a rational being. _Barriss_ was thinking, now. A cursory glance at the opposite side of the river showed no point of exit, but that was because she had entered the river deliberately to confuse his nose, an old prey trick. She could withstand colder temperatures than he could, and did not need to breath as often as most other humanoids; she was likely submerged under the water, swimming invisibly for as long as she could.

He pulled at the Force, and leaped over the water, sprinting downriver as soon as his feet hit the sand. She intended to surface on this side of the river; hopefully he could head her off.

Twenty meters later, his ears caught a splash. Barriss was surfacing on the original side of the river. She didn’t look at him, which meant she knew he was there; instead, she backtracked into the half of the forest they had come from.

He jumped after her again, hot on her heels. “Barriss, _stop!_ ”

She didn’t listen, and she hadn’t disturbed the foliage. Maul stopped, spinning, scenting, scanning the foliage; she had left him no trace.

“BARRISS!”

Many birds screeched and flew away at the sound of his scream, but he could not hear any reply.

The fear was welling up in his hearts now; he used it to sharpen his eyesight and still the effects of panic. There was no trail because she had stopped; she was shielding her Force signature and camouflaging herself amidst the abundant life of the jungle.

Maul moved slowly, circling outward from his position, closing his eyes to try and focus more keenly.

_In order to properly hunt something, you have to understand its motives._

“You said once that death could not part you from your duties as a doctor,” he called, sensing around him for her reaction; she _had_ to answer to that bait. “Whatever happened to _that?_ ”

“…Feral has you three.” He felt more than heard her reply; she wasn’t giving him a single clue as to her location, the _stubborn_ woman.

“He is _paralyzed_ from the _neck down_ , Barriss.”

“And Savage knows how to care for him. No doubt you can find him another healer.”

“Not one like you.”

“That’s the _point_.”

“ _Why?_ ” She was…excellent at this, he had to admit. She was spending his energy by forcing him to search in places where she wasn’t, no doubt travelling further away as she did…exactly what she had suggested earlier… “Barriss, I won’t go hunting for Kenobi, I promise.”

Her thoughts sounded just a bit insulted. “This has _nothing_ to do with Master Kenobi!”

“Then _what is it about?_ ” He roared, and another flock of birds took off in a flurry.

Silence.

“What did I do _wrong?_ ”

“This _isn’t about you_.”

_There are many things which are not about you, Your Grace._

“Then what, pray tell, _is it ABOUT?_ ”

Silence.

“BARRISS.”

...He’d lost her.

***

…It was only a matter of time before he found her again. Barriss was getting to be pretty good at running away, but she doubted she’d ever be able to outpace Maul’s hunting. Even now, she had to continue to be quiet; he hadn’t seen which direction she’d gone, but he was sure to pick up her scent soon with the way he was circling.

She didn’t go back to the river; he’d be expecting that. Instead, she doubled back toward the temples; she could turn abruptly and head deeper into the jungle if he or one of the others caught sight of her.

“…THERE YOU ARE.”

Dammit. She broke into a sprint; she couldn’t do this as long as he could, but he was hopefully beginning to lose stamina, whereas she could keep up a chase all day if necessary. She just needed to wait until he got winded…

Barriss stumbled into an unexpected patch of bright light…had she miscalculated, and returned to the temples? No…this was a more recent clearing. It looked as if the trees had been broken by something heavy…

“Why, ‘ello,” said someone with a rough voice. “We’ve got a greenie!”

“Nice, a bonus!”

Her world went alight with static, and then Barriss saw no more.

***

The two Weequay pirates, Jiro and Sabo had only intended to take a small break; they’d got the haul of corusca gems they needed from the droid miners in the gas giant, and they’d just stopped to record some approximation of its worth.

But a Mirialan fetched almost as big a price as the stolen loot. And she’d practically run straight into Jiro’s arms.

They hefted her stunned form into their transport. “Think we’ll get a promotion?” Sabo asked.

“For getting lucky? It could happen, I guess.”

“Hell yeah, brother!”

There was a roar from behind them, somewhere in the woods.

“Dude, close the door!” Jiro shouted, running to the flight controls.

“Get us out of here!”

“I’m trying!”

Something red and person-sized emerged into the light as they ascended, staring at them for as long as it was within sight. “Phew…” Sabo said as they lifted safely into the atmosphere. “Gotta be _desperate_ to try and eat a greenie. I’m told they taste bad.”

“Who told you?”

“…Somebody.”

“…Well, at least it’s gone. She’ll probably even thank us, too…she gets to live another day.”

“Yeah, in the shipyards! Meanwhile, _we’ll_ be hitting payday!”

“All right! I gotta _good_ feeling about this, bro!”

***

_…no…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Feral and Merrin. They have no idea, they truly have NO FREAKING IDEA, what the HELL is going on right now.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Savage and Merrin are settling their differences (we hope), Maul and Feral get re-acquainted thanks to the magic of Twin Force Bonds, and the author hesitantly makes Barriss suffer a hate crime (but lets her get her own back for it).

Maul had managed to cut the cuticle on his horn when he head-butted him. Savage had suffered worse – _much_ worse, this could be easily taken care of with a bacta bandage – but the sting of the cut was not doing much to improve his day.

“What in the _world_ got _into_ those two?” he wondered aloud as he gathered Feral into his arms to take him to medbay. There was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that they were going to have to make a quick lift-off very soon, and the big bed in the cargo bay did not have the appropriate straps to hold his brother in place.

“Maybe they’re playing hide-and-seek, or tag,” Merrin supplied helpfully, trotting alongside him.

Savage rolled his eyes. “They aren’t seven years old. Why on earth would they do that?”

“Well, some of my sisters liked to play those games with their new mates…it got them some privacy, and it sharpened their hunting skills.”

He’d almost forgotten that the cub was a Witch; Savage still did not know how he felt in that regard. “I don’t think it’s like that,” he said, easing Feral onto the medbay cot.

“How would you know, though? I’m too young to have a mate, but I’ve seen these sorts of things from an outsider’s perspective, whereas _you_ …”

“They were _afraid_.”

“And that’s normal. Mating is a fearful thing for both Sisters and Brothers; there’ve been times when both of them killed each other while in the process, and they were only found the day after.”

He strapped Feral into the harness. “ _Maul_ was chasing _Barriss_ , though. I’ve never seen a Nightbrother who wouldn’t see such a perfect opportunity to run _away_.”

“And I’d never seen a Nightsister who would not take advantage of a Brother to continue her family line, until I saw the Ventress. But, she wasn’t raised a Nightsister, and nor was your brother raised as a Nightbrother. They think like outsiders.”

Savage sighed, and glowered down at the girl from his full height. “ _Barriss_ is an outsider. And I’ve seen her hold her own against things that scare _me_. She wouldn’t run like that, not unless she thought she absolutely had to.” He _hoped_ that that meant Maul had not driven her away at last; they had just started to grow accustomed to living together, but his strange little brother had a tendency to press too hard when he should back off.

Merrin shrugged. “You know them better than I do, I suppose.”

“I do. Now, help me get the ship prepared for liftoff, would you?”

Before she could reply, the cargo bay doors began to close. Maul’s footsteps rang in the corridor a few seconds later as he ran to the bridge; another second later, the ship’s engines fired, and the liftoff sequence began.

“Stay here,” Savage said to Merrin. The girl would be safe enough with all of the instruments bolted down, and she had a tendency to run her mouth without thinking about what she said, not something that ensured survival around Maul. She took in a breath to protest, but he growled, and she complied; there was some good, at least, which came from being an Opress.

Carefully, Savage crept down the hallway into the cockpit. Maul was in the pilot’s seat, fitfully examining his star charts, his chest heaving from exertion; there were entire paragraphs of aurebesh lettering scrolling across his datascreen without his input, but he seemed neither to notice or care about them.

It was time for the question of the week, and Savage felt like he was risking another head-butt by asking it, this time to the gut. But, it had to be asked, or else he was sure Maul was just going to run them all headlong into danger without a second thought.

“Brother…where’s Barriss?”

Maul didn’t still, and for a few seconds Savage thought he might not answer him; he was about to repeat the question, when his brother took a shaky breath and replied. “Pirates took her.”

“…How? Weren’t you…”

“I _wasn’t there_ ,” Maul snarled.

“All right…so, we’re following them?”

“The Ohnaka symbol was on the transport; we’re going back to Florrum.” He set the coordinates into the computer and let it make its calculations. The aurebesh letters were _still_ appearing constantly on the datascreen; with a wave of his hand, Maul deleted them, only for them to start again.

“Maul, what happened?”

Maul examined Savage, and Savage could _see_ the debate that raged between distrust and distress in his brother’s troubled eyes. “I…I frightened her away, Savage.”

“…How?”

“I don’t _know_. One moment we were having a normal conversation, and the next…she was…” he went silent, and Savage could see his hands as they moved to grip at his temple while he racked his brain.

“What, exactly, did you say to each other?”

“…We were discussing strategy and…and the topic of _Kenobi_ came up…”

“…And? Did you yell at her?”

“No…I…snapped, but that wasn’t what set her off. She…didn’t want me to chase him.”

Savage nodded. “You have to be understanding, brother. She grew up with the Jedi; it’s logical that she would be loyal…”

“It’s not _like that_ ,” Maul growled. “She didn’t want _me_ to chase _Kenobi_. She thought _he_ would hurt _me_.”

“…Well, you _are_ just getting over your last fight with him, and she did go to a lot of effort to heal you…”

“It’s not. Like. _That._ ” Maul swiveled the chair around, glaring banefully. “If she had been worried that all her work would go to waste, she would have _scolded_ me, or _slapped_ me, or…she’s _done_ those things before. But she…” He gritted his teeth. “She didn’t do either of those things.”

“What _did_ she do?”

“…She expressed…weakness.”

He returned to the calculations; the ship had just left the atmosphere, and he input the coordinates for the jump to Florrum. Once again, Savage waited until Maul was willing to continue; after five minutes of silence, it became patently obvious that that was all he was going to get for now.

“I’m going to make something to eat,” he said at last. “I’ll leave you something for when you’re done brooding.”

Maul stared out the window into the streaking expanse of hyperspace and said nothing.

***

He didn’t know how long he spent in that chair, ruminating endlessly over the same conversation. But, when he finally could not sit still any longer and left the bridge, he found that the other passengers had fallen asleep in the interim.

He learned this by nearly colliding with the drawer-bed in which the young Nightsister lay. Maul rolled his eyes….that _had_ been _his_ bunk, but whatever. Slowly, he pushed it back into its berth; he didn’t want to accidentally rouse a Witch from her slumber, no matter how small she still was.

Savage and Feral were in the medbay, Feral in the cot and Savage sleeping next to him. He wondered what Barriss would have had to say about Savage’s neck muscles and proper sleep positions, as if she had any right to talk with the number of times she’d fallen asleep by (or on) Maul’s sick bed. He could still see her as she had been after Talzin’s first assault, shivering with a chill only she could feel, her hand shaking as he stitched it closed, blue eyes wide with fear.

Stars. An accidental thought had no need to hurt as badly as that one did.

It was as if the medbay had him in a tractor beam; he entered against his own will, when he had been intending to restlessly pace the length of the cargo bay. But this room, more than any other in the ship, had belonged to Barriss, and the chair that Maul drifted into beside the cot had been _her_ seat. If any place could afford some tangible way of looking from her perspective, it would be here.

“I dreamed about you.”

Maul twitched. “I thought you were asleep.”

“I wish I was. There’s nothing to do while I’m awake except _think_ …and all I can really think about right now is _you_.” Feral snorted softly, and opened his eyes, the light of them reflecting off the ceiling. “It took some time, but I finally know how I recognize you; I dreamed about you often, when I was a child. Did you do the same?”

“I don’t remember.” Maul shrugged sheepishly. “I rarely remember dreams for longer than an hour.”

Feral sighed. “It’s just as well. My dreams about you were never pleasant.” There was a bitter chuckle. “It seems like a very stupid thing to say right now, but I really did hate you.”

Maul raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Well…it’s silly. All I could see was a boy behind a glass window. Glass is precious on Dathomir, and the fact you had one made you richer than anyone in my village could ever hope to become. But whenever I saw you, you were looking _out_ of that window as if you were unhappy, despite the fact that you were warm and safe and clothed and fed.”

Maul moved to sit on the bed beside Feral. “I looked out the window and pretended I was _free_ , like the boy I saw there; I’d thought I was just making up an imaginary friend.”

“I guess we both had each other figured wrong, didn’t we?” Feral looked at him with soft yellow-gray eyes. “Where did you go? One day you just weren’t there when I saw the window. I thought I’d been too mean to you and driven you away.”

“You did nothing. My Master moved me to a different room, one without a window. I tried to get you back; I painted the window on my wall, but I could never see you again even with that.” He left out the part where his paint had been his own blood, or how his Master had thrown him out into the lava plains of Mustaphar to survive when he’d found out. If Feral had not dreamed of these things, then he did not need to know.

The other man shed a tear. “I missed you so much.”

“But I’m here now.” Maul wiped Feral’s cheek; there wasn’t any point in letting him soil his bedclothes. It was a mild touch, almost automatic, and yet…this had been a childhood fantasy, to go out and play with the Boy in the Window. That the boy was _real_ , that he could _touch_ him, that he wasn’t just a figment of his imagination and fuel for his _Master_ to mock him, had Maul swallowing a lump in his throat.

His brother closed his eyes, purring almost undetectably. “I only wish I could hug you.”

Maul sighed, still idly stroking Feral’s face. “You will. We’re going to get Barriss back; she healed me from being cut in half, so a few severed nerves should be no issue.”

Feral blinked. “You were _actually_ cut in half?”

“…Yes?”

“I thought that had just been a fever dream!”

“You _saw_ that?”

“I _felt_ it. It was like it happened to me.”

“You _saw_ the fight with Kenobi.” Maul leaned over to look Feral squarely in the eyes.

“That was the guy? Yes, I saw.”

“So, you _know_ why I _need_ my revenge against him.”

The man on the cot studied him quietly. “You want to hurt him as he has hurt you.”

“ _Yes_.” _Finally_ , someone who _understood_ …

“And you’re prepared for when he hurts you back, just like last time?”

Maul scowled. “This _will not be_ like the _last time_.”

“I hope not. I don’t want to lose you again.”

He sniffed. “You barely know me.”

“But Savage knows you better, and he loves you. Why should I do any differently?”

The gears in Maul’s brain came grinding to a halt. “Savage… _cares_ for me?”

His brother _stared_ at him. “…Yes? Didn’t you know that?”

“And you feel the same way?”

“Not quite, but I’m willing to trust Savage’s judgment…”

“Aren’t you frightened by me?”

“…No? I mean, when you’re looming over me like this, it’s uncomfortable, but…”

“But you wouldn’t run away from me if you had the ability?”

“…Is that what happened with Barriss?” At Maul’s sharp, pained nod, Feral clucked his tongue. “She was never afraid of _you_ , from what I saw.”

“You didn’t see much.”

“Brother, she had her back to you the entire time she was healing my bed sores. She let you catch her in the middle of a fainting fit. If she was afraid of _you_ , she’d have _fought_ you. Did she?”

“…She… _kissed_ , me,” he could barely say the pertinent word; his lips still tingled at the simple memory of it. “And then she ran when I tried to…return the favor.”

Feral raised his eyebrows. “Wow. Yeah, I’m picking up on some mixed signals there.”

Maul sighed miserably, and Feral regarded him carefully.

“She was taken by pirates, right?”

“…Yes.”

“Pirates you and Savage have met before?”

“On one occasion, yes.”

The paralyzed Nightbrother set his jaw, thinking; to Maul, it was like looking into a tinted carnival window, for the mannerism felt very familiar to his own muscle memories, but it was executed by a much different face from his.

“Brother, I’m going to attempt something foolhardy; if it works, I’ll be able to assist you. Can you help me?”

His eyes narrowed. “What do you want me to do?”

***

Barriss was awakened by a strong scent under her nose – like isopropyl alcohol, but… _fishier_ somehow.

“Come on, greenie. Take your medicine.”

The taste was on her tongue before she could open her eyes. Barriss coughed and sputtered, hoping to expel as much of the liquid as possible.

The Weequay in front of her roared with laughter. “Whatsa matter? Greenie doesn’t know what’s good for her?”

He brought the glowing blue canteen to her lips again – spotchka, naturally. Barriss allowed herself _one_ mouthful – she didn’t swallow, but held it in her mouth. The _brute_ who thought this was _funny_ was about to receive an education…

“Hey, Jiro! What’s this I hear about a big payout?”

Her tormentor turned around with a grin. “Boss! You’re back! How’d the raid go?”

“The raid…did not go as planned. But! It can be salvaged…especially if what your brother told me is true.”

Barriss was suddenly face to face with Hondo Ohnaka himself; she’d never had the _pleasure_ of meeting him in person, but he looked very much like his reputation would have the galaxy believe, with his tri-corner hat, wide-brimmed goggles, and long braids down his back. He glanced over her with an appraising eye, and she tested her bonds…she had her hands shackled behind her, and she was floating in some sort of force field.

“She’s a Jedi too, boss; got her lightsaber off her and put her in the floatie. Figured she’d make a lot of trouble for us if I didn’t.”

“How many crystals in the lightsaber?”

“One.”

“Ah, so that brings us up to four, total. I’d been anticipating six in the raid, but we can make up the price for two with the bounties on the captives.” Hondo stepped into her personal space, studying her tattoos closely. “I think she’ll bring in a _big_ sum, too…look at this,” he cried, seizing her by the chin. “She has at least twenty little freckles here! They pay more for the…”

He returned his roving gaze to her face, and Barriss saw her opportunity. His goggles prevented him from getting an eyeful of spotchka, but she was pretty sure some of it went up his nose at the least.

Silence reigned, as Hondo Ohnaka decided whether it would be profitable to become angry. He blinked for a few seconds, retreated from her, and experimentally licked his lips; Barriss cringed in disgust.

“Whose bright idea was it to give a Mirialan my finest spotchka? And for free, at that?”

Jiro looked around at a number of his fellows who had been watching, but none of them were willing to take the fall for him. “I paid for it, boss,” he said, holding up the canteen as evidence. “I just thought it would wake her up a little…”

“And it did, at that. Keep this in mind for the future: green Mirialans believe that consuming alcohol offends their goddess, and eating ocean-dwelling bottom-feeders such as shrimp offends their god. Spotchka is doubly insulting to their culture, and they will _waste it_ in exactly the same way she just did.” Hondo never raised his voice, nor did he display any aggressive mannerisms. Still, with every word, he slowly approached Jiro, until he was regarding him shrewdly from a distance of scant centimeters. “Also, deliberately infringing upon a person’s religious beliefs is torture, my friend. And torture is barely _ever_ profitable, especially in this instance.”

Jiro shrunk from his boss, his nose wrinkling from the smell of the liquor. “Sorry, boss. It won’t happen again.”

Hondo smiled, and patted his subordinate’s cheek with one hand. “Very good. Now. Get me another shirt, and make it snappy. Mother raised me better than to stand around here smelling like a shrimp’s back end.”

“Right sir.”

As Jiro hurried away, Hondo snapped his fingers. “Put them next to this one.”

“Sir, is that…safe?”

“They’re all in the flotation devices, correct? Then there’s no need to worry. We’ll be watching them constantly anyway.”

There was a shuffling out of Barriss’s vision; the force fields lived up to their name, unfortunately, scrambling the midichlorians in her body, so that she could neither turn her head to see the commotion nor stretch out her Force sense to feel what was going on. So it was only when the pirates set their other captives in front of her, floating unconscious in their own devices, that she realized their identities.

“Jinx… _Ahsoka?_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...yeah. Mirialans (in my mind) have some sort of odd combination of kosher and halal guidelines. No shellfish, and no alcohol. I hope that that is not offensive to anyone, but if it is, feel free to tell me.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jinx is along for the ride again because the author stans him, Ahsoka wakes up just in time to make Hondo Ohnaka squirm and to demand answers from her best friend, and the dysfunctional Dathomirian quartet hash out just how they intend to bust open this gravy stand.

“So,” Jinx started, watching over Yoda’s shoulder as the latest batch of younglings headed into the ice caves of Ilum. “Anyone care to explain to me why, exactly, I am here?”

“Extra help, Ahsoka thought she might need,” Yoda replied, apparently sitting cross-legged on the icy floor because he wasn’t really here, he was in his room on Coruscant halfway across the galaxy while the rest of them froze their butts off. “Also, talk to you about the conspiracy, she wants to do. So, climb the statues like you did last time, you will not.”

Ahsoka’s eyes widened.

“Thought I didn’t know about that, did you? Hmm? Not looking am I; talk silently you may. Everything I need to know, I will learn from the Force.”

Jinx opted for a tired sigh. _I never thought I’d miss Wasskah_ , he lekku-signed.

“Needed to know that, I did. Feel the wrath of my gimer stick you will, when you return.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“Would you stop?” Ahsoka shoved him lightly. “I don’t want either of us on time-out.”

“Fine.” Jinx eyed the top of the statue longingly. Ever since Wasskah, high places made him feel more secure because less could sneak up on him that way. Lissarkh had found him sleeping on top of the cupboards in the kitchen before she decided to get him a bunk bed.

_This isn’t going to be like that training mission_ , Ahsoka signed. _I promise. I’ve got your back. And Yoda does too, of course; quite a few younglings have gone missing lately._

_So that’s why he’s watching? He didn’t do that when we first got our sabers._

_Well, that, and the Confederacy has taken a special interest in Ilum. Yoda had to personally head a counterattack when…_ Ahsoka sighed… _when Master Unduli took Padawan Offee to make her final lightsaber, just before Barriss was knighted. The Separatists attacked them and stranded them in the caves._

_Barriss really managed to be everywhere, didn’t she?_

_She’s not the only one. I’ve been to countless planets in this war; if I didn’t have my Master, the 501 st, or my family at the Temple, I’d feel completely untethered_.

Jinx nodded sadly. _Like I do._

Ahsoka glanced at him in concern. _You do? Have you told your Master? Or O-Mer?_

_O-Mer left the Order to rejoin his family on Cerea, and help them rebuild after that battle. He keeps in touch, but…well, when a guy has two fiancées and about four other girlfriends clamoring for his attention, he’s got more to worry about than someone else’s existential crisis._ Jinx shook his head fondly. _Lissarkh knows because she took me to meet my real family when I was thinking about leaving the Order as well. There didn’t seem much point in staying, when I was the only one from my clan left._

_…Force, Jinx, I’m so sorry. I had no idea you were going through that._

_Few people did. And, there wasn’t much you could have done anyway; you were needed on the fronts._ Jinx fished his Padawan braid out of his hood, showing her the carved wood piece which hung from the end of it. _I didn’t have enough in common with my family to warrant staying, but they did give me this…my piece of the family Kalikori. It’s…well it’s a pretty final way of saying that I’m dead, as far as the family histories are concerned, but it’s also a way of keeping them with me. I think that thinking about that paradox – that they love me but think the Jedi are what’s best for me – has done more for me than any talk therapy has._

_I’m glad you went, then,_ Ahsoka smiled. _And I’m glad that you’re here…I just wish I could have been there, you know?_

Jinx raised an eyebrow. _And not just for me._

She huffed a bit, beating her arms with her hands to build up a little body heat. _Barriss is my best friend, but I’m only beginning to understand how little I really know about her. I looked over Gree’s summation of what happened on Umbara, but that whole mess feels like it was just the last straw for her, like this whole thing had been accumulating. And, looking at her war record, I can see that she really did not have the same support system that I’ve been blessed with. Did you know she was taking your counseling calls from the front lines?_

_Yes, because I was sending them from the front lines._

_And it’s the same with all Jedi Healers. They’re expected to heal the mind_ and _the body_ and _the soul when necessary, in addition to planning and leading battles and somehow keeping up with their training when they’re Padawans. And Barriss spent at least one rotation in every major medical station, all while studying for her medical license_ and _talking to you_ and _at least two other patients._ Ahsoka had begun to pace, gesticulating wildly with her arms as well as her lekku. _I’ve had a pretty hard workload myself, yes, but at least I’ve been able to focus on one thing at a time_ and _I’ve got people behind me to help. If I’d have had to do what Barriss has had to do, I’d have gone off the deep end._

Jinx watched her, his arms folded into his shirt sleeves. _Interesting…that’s exactly what Gree, Master Unduli, and I think what happened._

She looked at him, less surprised and more resigned. _You think she willingly abandoned her post?_

_Master Unduli believes it strongly enough that she has hindered the investigation in some places._

That brought a look of horror to her face. _Master Unduli? But that’s…that’s a_ crime. _Why would she do that?_

_Because leaving your post in the middle of a war is a crime as well,_ Jinx replied.

_And? There’s no punishment for leaving the Jedi Order._

_But, the sentence for leaving the Galactic Army of the Republic without leave is death by firing squad._

***

“What was that about torture rarely being profitable, Captain Ohnaka?”

Ahsoka’s head felt like it was caught in a vice, and her montrals were ringing with a despairingly familiar tinnitus. She’d been knocked out once more in the service of her nation; nothing she hadn’t been able to handle before.

“And this, my rambunctious friend, is one of those rare instances! The last time hydrated Jedi were allowed to run free around my base, I incurred a few hundred credits’ worth of damage and lost at least thirty million credits! That is _not_. Going to _happen_. This time!”

She winced at the loud voice reverberating against her already aching head. Hondo Ohnaka. _Why_ did it _always_ have to be Hondo Ohnaka?

“You did not lose any credits. You wrongfully assumed that the Confederacy and the Republic would post bail, and they didn’t. You never had the money to begin with.”

_That_ voice, however, was memorable in a welcome sort of way. Carefully, Ahsoka opened her eyes to get her bearings. She was suspended in midair with some sort of force field, her hands cuffed behind her back. The place was some sort of storehouse; Anakin or Obi-Wan would probably recognize it from their one time captured by Hondo, but she’d never been allowed near Florrum for obvious reasons. Pirates of many species milled about in multiple different stages of drunkenness – Hondo, who stood with his back to her, seemed to be in the ‘lucid but still tipsy’ state of being in which he seemed to exist most efficiently. Jinx hovered to her right, and twitched an upwards nod when he saw she was conscious; he had a nasty black eye, but he would recover. To her left and arguing sedately with their captor was Barriss Offee.

Hondo shrugged. “Advancement requires risk, young lady! But, it was a mistake I do not care to repeat, I’ll admit. I have _other_ buyers for you this time, reliable ones at that. They won’t pay a government’s ransom, but they will pay handsomely…particularly for _female_ Jedi.”

Barriss tilted a dubious eyebrow; she seemed fairly put-together, outwardly at least, but shock blasts could be like that, lingering pain with no outward evidence. “Sex trafficking, Hondo? A man of _your_ status?”

“Even legends have to put booze on the table, love.”

“Yes, well, you’re _legendary_ enough to know the sort of chaos Anakin Skywalker will reap upon you if you even harm one akul tooth on his apprentice’s head. He _likes_ to break up slaving rings.”

“So does _my_ Master, by the way,” Jinx piped up. “She was the Trandoshan who threatened to eat your bartender a few weeks back.”

“And that’s not even going into what Obi-Wan would do if he heard about this,” Ahsoka added. Hondo whirled, obviously not expecting her to be awake yet, and she winked. “ _Everyone_ knows you value him as a contact, Ohnaka, but if you sell me and my friends, he will _never_ forgive you.”

The pirate rolled his eyes, stroking the head-tuft of the lizard-monkey on his shoulder. “All right, _all right_ , you’ve called my bluff. I’m _not_ selling you into sexual slavery. You,” he pointed to Barriss, “are going home to Mirial to see mummy and daddy, and I’m giving _you_ two to Dooku as a peace offering. He’s been jeopardizing business in this sector ever since I let him go free; the man can really hold a petty grudge.”

“That’s _not_ the story _we_ heard…”

“Well it’s the story you’re hearing now, so shush. The flotation devices do come with an electrocution feature. I’d _hate_ to have to use it on valuable merchandise, but if you try to escape, or plot escape, or breathe too loud in anticipation of escape, I won’t hesitate.”

“Good to know,” Jinx said wryly.

Hondo regarded him coolly, brought up his hand, and depressed a button on a clicking device. The young Twi’lek endured several seconds of shock; when it was over, and he hung limply in his bonds, the pirate captain smiled. “I also won’t hesitate if someone tries to have the last word. This is _my_ compound. The last word belongs to Hondo Ohnaka, and Hondo Ohnaka alone! You’d all do well to remember that.” With that, he sauntered off.

“You all right, Jinx?”

“Somebody get the number on that freighter.” He heaved his head off of his chest, grimacing in pain. “I’ll live. What about you?”

“Been through worse.” Ahsoka eyed Barriss. “What about you?”

The Mirialan smiled glumly. “My pride is hurt, but other than that, I’m fine.”

Ahsoka nodded, but Jinx coughed theatrically. “Not to be an uncouth nerfherder, but where in the _seven hells_ have you _been_ these past months? Everyone has been looking for you!”

Barriss flinched. “ _Why?_ ” she demanded. “I _left_ the Order. I’m no longer anyone’s business.”

“You didn’t just leave the Order,” Ahsoka said reasonably. “You disappeared without telling anyone _why_ , or where you were going, or what went wrong.”

“Nobody would have listened.”

“We would!”

“Would you?” Barriss looked Ahsoka straight in the eye. “Would you really? The last time I tried to talk to you, it turned into a therapy session about your latest heartthrob. And the _only_ times I really talked to you,” she continued, pinning Jinx with her gaze, “were _actual_ therapy sessions.”

He shrugged. “Got me in one.”

“Barriss, that isn’t fair,” Ahsoka replied. “We talk about all kinds of things.”

“And yet, every time I bring up any sort of unease with the war effort, you get defensive…and I’m not even trying to attack you!”

“You could have talked to Luminara!”

“To what effect? She’s the same way.” Barriss sighed. “I was _drowning_ , Ahsoka, and all the Jedi Order could think to do was give me water. I had to get away, or lose my mind entirely.”

“But you could have _at least_ told us where you were going!”

“And have you talk me out of leaving?”

“Yeah, maybe!” Ahsoka gritted her teeth. “At least if that had happened, you would not have been kidnapped by Savage Opress and his creepy brother!”

A deep sadness came over her friend, then; Barriss’s eyes sank to study the floor, and the force-field shimmered as it shifted to catch her downward momentum. “Perhaps you’re right,” she replied. “I’m sorry. I should not have run as I did.”

Ahsoka looked at Jinx, who had the same expression of alarm on his face that she could feel on hers. “Did they…hurt you?” she asked.

Barriss closed her eyes, and did not answer.

***

“I told you it wasn’t going to work.”

“Is that the same kind of attitude which kept you alive for more than a decade when you were cut in half?”

“ _You_ do not have the same sort of training as _I_ do.”

“So use your training, then! Glue my spine back together! I want to help you guys!”

“It doesn’t _work_ that way!”

Savage sighed, opened his eyes, and _glared_ at his two younger brothers. “You’d better not be talking about what I _think_ you’re talking about.”

Maul at least had the maturity to seem somewhat apologetic, but Feral…

“It was all Maul’s idea.”

“…No it was _not!_ ”

“He’s right, Feral, it’s not. _You’re_ the only one foolhardy enough to try and heal a mortal wound without help.”

“If it was mortal, I would not be here.”

“Barriss was surprised you were alive.”

“Shut _up_ , Maul…”

“What’s going on?” The three of them turned around to see a tiny Nightsister in the doorway, her white hair tangled from a restless sleep and her eyes still groggy.

Right. _She_ was here as well.

“Say, Merrin? Would you know any healing arts?”

She scowled. “If I had known anything, I would have healed your neck already.”

“That’s…understandable.” Feral huffed in frustration. “Well, I _did_ have a plan to infiltrate the pirate headquarters, but now it’s almost completely upside down.”

Savage leaned over his face in order to properly gape at his recklessness. “And just _why_ would you need to heal your neck for that plan?”

His brother squirmed. “Don’t give me that look, Savage. The pirates have seen you and Maul already, but not me. If you were to go up and ask the gang for work, they’d capture you, but I might have a chance of being hired.”

“I’ll go!”

Maul rolled his eyes. “Merrin, you’re twelve.”

“And therefore they’d never expect me to lie to them!”

“Merrin, you’re _female_ ,” Savage rumbled. “On Dathomir, that means you’re strong. Out here, that means you’ll be sold as some pedophile’s concubine.”

“So, take me with you and pretend I’m _your_ concubine.”

The brothers took a brief huddle to make the exact same face of disgust at each other. “That’s…not going to happen, half pint,” Savage elected to say after a moment.

“You could pretend she’s your daughter, though.”

“Feral, don’t encourage her.”

“She protected me for _months_. She can handle a few pirates!”

“What did she protect you from, ghosts?”

“ _Yes_ , dingus!”

Well, the two of _them_ seemed to have settled in pretty well with each other. Savage held his head; he was already starting to develop a migraine. “Has anyone thought to check the bounties and see if there’s any up for Maul? Because I _know_ that I still have a bounty out for me – a million credits, not worth much in the Outer Rim, but sizable enough for one person. But, since Maul is still technically dead…”

“ _Kenobi_ will be looking for me.”

“ _Kenobi_ is involved in a personal vendetta with you. I doubt he’s going to outsource your death to anyone else.” Savage grabbed a datapad and did a few searches as he was speaking. “There, see? Clean as a whistle; nobody knew your name or face in our most recent raids, and you’re probably still legally dead on any planet where you have legal citizenship.”

“Florrum does not regulate citizenship.”

“Florrum does not regulate _anything_.” Savage set down the datapad and brushed his hands. “So, _you_ can play the part of the set-upon single father, beg for a job, and try to find Barriss, while I stay here to look after Feral and keep the engines warm in the likely event you need a quick getaway.”

Maul stared at him, and Savage folded his arms casually, daring him to come up with a better plan. Then he stared at Merrin, who mirrored Savage’s posture and tried to stand on her toes to look a little taller. And then he stared at Feral, who pouted.

“Can I at least be in charge of the comm systems? I’m bored.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you forgot, in this fic Jinx is Jacen Syndulla, Hera's long-lost brother from canon. He's green, he's sarcastic, and he even kinda has the same facial features as Cham; and Hera never really confirmed that her brother was *dead*, because she rightly did not want to confirm or deny any of Thrawn's assumptions about her culture. One of these days I will write an angsty one-shot about him alone. But not today.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which two old dudes meet up for drinks and hauntings at a dive bar, Maul and Merrin play up a sob story and start an impromptu pub rave, Barriss beats herself up and pines while imprisoned, and the author found an excuse to look up fancy words for orange and yellow.

It figured that the only person in the haphazard group of castaways who could actually hear him would be the one stunned and put in Force restraints.

Nilam sighed. He’d been able to follow Barriss to Florrum ahead of the turtle tanker, by virtue of being unfettered by mere mortal bonds. There wasn’t any point in staying; Maul was ignoring him, Savage covered his fear of him by making snide ‘Darth Pregnant’ jokes, Feral had enough to think about without poltergeist activity beside his sickbed, and Merrin seemed the type to try to capture him in a bottle and set him on a shelf for purely aesthetic purposes. However, if he could not get through to Barriss, his hands were tied.

“ _Hello again, old friend._ ”

If he had been corporeal, the speed at which he whipped around at the sound of this other voice might have sent him into an undignified fall. The ghost of Master Qui-Gon Jinn smirked.

“ _Didn’t expect to see me, did you?_ ”

Nilam gave him a tired smile. “ _No, but your presence is greatly appreciated._ ”

“ _What happened? It’s only been three or four days since we last spoke. I thought your charges were safely away from mine._ ”

“ _Yes, well, my charges are_ idiots _._ ”

The Jedi chuckled. “ _So are mine. This one,_ ” he pointed to the Togruta girl, “ _is my great-grand-Padawan. She and the boy with her sacrificed their freedom so the younglings in their care could escape these pirates. I’m both proud and somewhat annoyed that their cockamamie plan actually worked._ ”

“ _It sounds like she fits right into Yoda’s lineages. At least you have something to be proud of her for. Mine just bolted right into Ohnaka’s arms when her commitment issues suddenly came face-to-face with her marriage and the feelings that chased it._ ”

Jinn’s eyebrows shot up. “ _Wait…she’s_ married?”

“ _Yes, to Maul._ ”

“ _When did_ that _happen?_ ”

“ _Before I got involved._ ”

“ _Is this one of those Dathomiri kidnappings? Because Barriss could just renounce her Claim; my Master once had to force a Nightsister to renounce her Claim on_ me.”

“ _...Long story, huh?_ ”

“ _Not nearly long enough, that was the end of it…at least, it was for_ me.”

“ _Well, this isn’t quite the same situation. Barriss is essentially married according to Mirial custom as well, only she either doesn’t know it or is as heavily in denial about it as she is about the fact that she’s fallen in love._ ”

Jinn gaped. “ _…And I thought Anakin’s ‘secret’ marriage was bad._ ”

“ _…Anakin, as in the Chosen One?_ ”

“ _Yes._ ”

“ _Is secretly married._ ”

“ _If by ‘secret’ you mean ‘they haven’t told anyone but they don’t have to because it is blatantly obvious’, then yes._ ”

“ _…Tell me everything._ ”

“ _Are you sure? It’s a long story._ ”

“ _And I’ve got time to kill. It’s either that or tossing glasses around in the bar area to cause a little chaos_.”

“ _I think I’d honestly prefer to do_ that.”

“ _Ah, but we can haunt and talk at the same time. Come with me…_ ”

***

Savage insisted that Merrin wear her long mourning veils when she went with Maul to the pirate compound. She nodded agreeably. “It will conceal the knives on my person.”

The Opress got on one knee and looked her dead in the eye. “It will conceal your _body_ , child. I wasn’t joking when I said they’d make you a concubine if they could, whether you like it or not. Keep them _on_ ; being out of sight will be half the battle here.”

“The other half will be fighting back against those particular individuals who don’t care what you look like,” Maul said. “Stay close to me at all times; that will hinder them, but not necessarily stop them. If someone touches you, stab them, _instantly_.”

“Killing a pirate will get us noticed.”

“Immediate and violent reprisal against harassment and assault is not only expected in places such as these, it’s encouraged. You might be promoted on the spot for your perceived vivacity.”

“Or I might stab the wrong person and get us both killed.”

The brothers shook their heads. “That’ll only happen if you kill the monkey-lizards,” Savage drawled. “Little brats have the run of the place. Anyone else will just respect your boldness.”

“It’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy, little Nightsister. If they push you, push back.”

She took a deep breath, and nodded. “Very well.”

Savage smiled. “Good woman,” he murmured, pulling out a hidden communicator. “Now, Maul has one of these, but you need one in case something happens to his. Tuck it under one of your bangles…yes, that works…and here’s how to use it.” Once he got done explaining the simple little two-button system, he patted her on the head. “Feral will be listening at all times. Send the distress signal, and we’ll come to your location immediately.”

“I will.”

He nodded. “Safe journey to you, Sister.” And then he slowly stood, and watched with troubled eyes as she and Maul started across the wasteland. When they were out of sight, the ship took off again; it would cruise through the atmosphere, so that it could hopefully avoid the Ohnaka gang’s ‘toll collectors.’

Maul set off at a harsh pace, so that Merrin had to jog to keep up. “Brother Maul, I must insist you slow down.”

“We haven’t time to dally. We need to get in, assess the situation, get Barriss, and get _out_.”

“But our cover story is that we are father and daughter. We have to at least look like we have some care for each other.”

He stopped, turned abruptly, and considered her.

A minute later, Maul was speed-walking across the putrid sulfur fields with Merrin seated uncomfortably on his back. “They will _see_ that I am far too old for rancor-back rides,” she muttered, pouting.

“I’ll wave it off as nostalgic zeal.”

“They will _see_ that you are not the type to develop such sentiment.”

“Pipe down and let me concentrate. You’re heavy.”

“That is because I am _too old_ …”

“Shut _up_.”

***

He set the little Witch down on her feet when they were in sight of the compound, and approached slowly, grabbing her hand and pulling her to his side. “Try to seem somewhat afraid,” he murmured. “Walk just slightly behind me, and tuck your face against my arm…yes, just like that.”

There weren’t terribly many guards – in the open at least. It was actually fairly clever how the patrols hid themselves by acting drunk and chatting, but Maul could sense the focus behind most of the pirates’ attention. An inexperienced observer would think them undisciplined, rowdy, and easily led, but Maul had seen them empty their freighter’s stores as efficiently as if they were in a factory. It would be a welcome challenge to lie successfully to their faces.

And then, two Nightbrothers stepped out from behind one of the ships in the yard. “Hey,” said one, a sturdy fellow with vibrant gamboge skin and deep brown markings. “Speak of the horned god…”

The other Nightbrother had terracotta-colored skin and blackish markings. He waved brightly at the duo of newcomers. “Come over here, my Brother!”

Merrin drew closer to his elbow, feigning shyness to speak softly. “Were there Nightbrothers with the pirates before?”

“No. Stay calm. I can amend our story.”

“You here for the dental benefits too?” the yellow man said as Maul and Merrin came closer.

“…Well, it’s among my reasons,” Maul replied in a passable imitation of Savage’s accent. “Really, we just needed to get away from Dathomir.”

“Doesn’t everyone?” The orange man grinned, and extended a hand. “Name’s Tare, and this is Ryp.”

“Malign,” good code names were ones he would answer to instinctively, “and this is my daughter, Ilyana.” He wasn’t too sure about _that_ name, but Merrin seemed to be closely connected with it, so he allowed it.

“Your _daughter_?” Ryp cried. Maul and Merrin cringed, expecting him to reveal their lie, but he was happy, not outraged. “Where did you find a woman who let you _see_ her?”

“Well, I didn’t really _find_ her. My parents defected to a Day clan shortly before I was born; I was raised with her.” There, believable and succinct; easy as breathing.

“Lucky bastard. But what are you doing _here_ , of all places?”

He allowed a hitch to creep into his voice. “There were wildfires a few months back. The women tried to fight them, but…well, there’s nothing left for us there.”

In a stroke of artistic brilliance, Merrin hid her face in his shoulder, and he squeezed her hand comfortingly.

The Nightbrother duo was appropriately affected. Tare even looked like he might cry. “Well,” he said. “You can definitely stay with us, for as long as you need. We’ll even put in a good word with Hondo.”

“In fact,” Ryp eyed Merrin. “We might not even have to. Daysisters know how to drive out ghosts, right…?”

***

“We’re doomed,” Merrin muttered as loudly as she dared.

“…What do you mean?” he asked. “Did you not protect…?”

“I _reminded_ them that he was the son of…someone important, who could do _more_ to them than I could. But I’m not an Expectress. I have no real training. If this is really a ghost…”

“Just walk into the kitchen, declare that it is yours, and command the spirit to go whence it came. Simple as that.”

“You say that _now…_ ”

“I’ve seen it done. I’ve _done_ it. You can do this.”

As he said that, they entered the Ohnaka gang’s pub, in which pandemonium reigned supreme. Merrin was surprised to see that there wasn’t any broken glass; instead, it almost looked as if an invisible person a few centimeters shorter than Savage was calmly juggling several differently-colored flagons, while a jaunty tune whistled from elsewhere in the room. The bartender seemed more exasperated than afraid, but the tables were greatly enjoying this, setting bets on which bottle would break first.

“…I know that tune,” Maul murmured.

“From where?”

“Your… _mother_ used to hum it while she cleaned her utensils,” he replied. “She said it was an old folk tune from her tribe.” He narrowed his eyes. “I think I know this particular ghost,” he said in her ear. “Don’t command him. Ask him nicely to leave.”

“But that won’t _make_ him leave.”

“Do as I say.”

He’d been pretending to be a father for less than an hour, and already the man was putting on airs. Merrin sniffed. “Fine, but when it goes wrong, remember it is _your_ fault.”

She walked forward to where the flagons were tumbling midair, and cleared her throat. “Excuse me, good sir,” she had only Maul’s word that it was, indeed, a _sir_ , but that was better than nothing. “Would you mind setting the alcohol down? These good people are very thirsty.”

“Love, I got _money_ riding on the _red_ one to fall first!” a raucous voice called out. “Let it alone!”

Merrin shrugged. “You heard what he said. Set the red one down first.”

The flagons stilled in midair, then, one by one, came to rest on the table, starting with the red one.

A cheer erupted throughout the tavern, and money began changing hands. Maul sidled up close to Merrin just as an unsavory character called her ‘darling’ and offered to buy her a drink; when she felt his hand on her shoulder, she grinned. “And how about a lively song? Something we can dance to!”

The whistling voice quieted for a moment, and then broke into ‘Drunken Spacer’. Another, louder, cheer went up, and several pirates began to sing along with varying degrees of skill. Ryp started to jig, while Tare laughed and waved to one corner of the room.

“How’s that for some Dathomiri magic, boss?”

The Weequay in goggles dancing on a table to the chagrin of his ever-present monkey-lizard threw up two thumbs in approval. “This is the _best investment_ Hondo Ohnaka has ever made! Do the Seppie-man next!”

Maul smiled down at Merrin. “We’re in.”

***

Barriss was fairly certain she hadn’t had a decent sip of water in two days. She wasn’t certain how long it had been for Ahsoka or Jinx. Ohnaka was a shrewd judge of their limits; they were all of species who could go for a week or so without properly rehydrating, and so he only allowed them half a mouthful of water at midday. There was no chance they were going to be able to run away on their own. They were going to be sold, plain and simple.

Oh well. She might as well go to Mirial; every other bridge had been burned at this point.

Stars, she was such a _coward_. For all her talk of despising division and desiring compassion, when the chips were down and her hand was weak, Barriss Offee folded. She’d run from the Order. She’d run from the GAR. And now, she’d run from the only viable allies she had left, all because she could not _bear_ the way Darth Maul looked at her. Even now, whenever she closed her eyes she saw his, and felt the fire behind them…she’d gotten too close to that fire, _too close_ , and now she’d been burned, and it was her own damnable fault.

What was _wrong_ with her? She’d had crushes before; all Jedi did. But she’d been able to move past her childish flirting with Tutso Mara, and her flattery at Anakin Skywalker’s hand in a Temple dance, and her awe and admiration for Ahsoka Tano’s wit and tenacity. All of them had become simply friends, but with Maul, she couldn’t do that. He was the _enemy_ , but he had never been _her_ enemy. He was cunning and grace, and yet more forthright than anyone else she had ever known. He was deadly, and he was _beautiful_ , not in spite of but _because_ of his deadliness.

And she’d hurt him, by leaving in the way she did.

She might as well go to Mirial, and work herself into an infarction in the shipyards. She already felt like dying.

“And this is stash number five. Pay close attention; we have valuable prisoners stowed here for now.”

Hondo Ohnaka passed by her face. She didn’t budge, listening to him talk; this was an obvious tour for a new recruit, and her participation was decidedly not wanted.

“You keep prisoners in _here_? Don’t you have jail cells?”

_…It couldn’t be_. The accent was all wrong, but the cadences of his voice, the way he _sang_ through each of his sentences…

“Of _course_ we have jail cells! But _these_ are Jedi! They break out of jail cells for a living! Better to keep them here, where we can have more eyes on them and more _guns_ on them.”

“Jedi, huh?” Barriss opened her eyes; she was cut off from the Force, and she could still feel the effort it took for him not to _snarl_ at the mention of his ancestral enemies. The angle at which her head was tilted only afforded her a look at his boots; his footwork was _achingly_ familiar.

“Yes, Jedi! We have a great many resources here, my fine fellow. We can handle a Jedi or three! Now…since you mentioned it, let me show you the detainment levels. You can work as a guard there as well.”

“Right behind you, _boss_.”

There was only a hint of hesitation, the _slightest_ delay, which let her know that he had seen her looking. He did not bring his eyes into view, or touch her, or even draw close; his intention had been to let her know he was there, and it ended simply. But…he would be back.

Her heart was racing, her stomach was fluttering, and it took every ounce of willpower to avoid hyperventilation. With every fiber in her body, she wanted _never_ to speak with him again – and yet every atom of her being _longed_ just to look at him one more time.

She might as well go back to Mirial. But for some reason, Barriss thought that that wasn’t the hand she was going to be dealt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...
> 
> ....
> 
> .....
> 
> ......Would you two just kiss already? Good grief, do I have to do ALL the work myself?


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nilam gives unwanted but sorely needed exposition, Maul and Merrin's rescue is intercepted by the youngling clan's rescue, Hondo Ohnaka gets flung into a wall and survives because of canon armor, and Ahsoka and Barriss have a not-so-mild freakout at each other in front of everyone.

As the afternoon wore down into evening, the prisoners were gradually deemed compliant enough to release from the Force fields. To prevent them from having too much freedom of movement, they were cuffed together with their backs facing each other; they were positioned in the main hangar bay, where all eyes could be on them at once.

The moment she was able to properly sense the Force again, Barriss was being bombarded.

“ _What were you_ thinking? _Maul was_ listening _to you, for pity’s sake! What a time to have a useless Jedi moral crisis!_ ”

“ _Wait, she can actually_ hear _you? Like, when you’re not trying to be scary?_ ”

“ _She hears me_ best _when I’m not trying to be scary! Now shut up and let me yell at her!_ ”

Oh great. Now there were two of them. Barriss gritted her teeth and slowly sat on the floor, because her head was killing her and she didn’t want to drag the other two down with her if she fainted. She didn’t have the energy to justify herself to a _Sith Lord_ who was murdered by his own wife.

“ _I_ heard _that, you little…how_ dare _you! That was an_ entirely _different set of circumstances!_ ”

The voice that didn’t belong to Nilam chuckled. “ _She has a point, though. You Sith have no leg to stand on when it comes to healthy relationships._ ”

“Ex _-Sith,_ thank _you._ ” The ghostly Mirialan made a face in the direction of the other voice, taking a knee before Barriss to look her in the eye. Obviously, she looked about as well as she felt, because Nilam’s face softened, just slightly. “ _Do you think you’ll be able to run, child?_ ” he asked.

She was cuffed to two Padawans who, though less dehydrated than she was, had gone through a ringer. Ahsoka was known by the pirates, and they seemed to fear her more than the other two; the slightest twitch on her part brought some sort of corporal punishment. Jinx had taken a few electrocutions when he twitted the guards to distract them from the others; so far he was bearing his treatment stoically, but it was also the first time he’d been in such a situation since Wasskah. In order for any of them to run, Barriss would need to cut herself away from them…

“ _That’s being taken care of, don’t worry. How are_ you _doing?_ ”

Other than a severe headache, she was fine.

“ _Good. Now, according to Qui-Gon, your rescue party should not be arriving for at least another half hour. It’s as good a time as any to address one of the shortcomings of your Temple education._ ”

Barriss glared. Didn’t she have enough Sith challenging her values?

“ _I’m_ not _a Sith any longer, and you are being petulant and stubborn to distract me from the actual issue. Did you ever attend a Mirialan betrothal ceremony?_ ”

If he’d talked to Qui-Gon Jinn, he should have known the unworkable political position the Jedi had possessed in regards to Mirial in recent years. Barriss had only seen her planet of origin in holos, and her people were rather reluctant when it came to recording or sharing the finer points of their culture even with each other, so when Dooku’s curtain came down upon the planet there was little information to be found about Mirial. Even if there _had_ been something to study, she certainly had never needed or wanted to learn about betrothal customs – a Jedi avoided attachment, anyway, and she’d had more than enough to do beside that.

Nilam rolled his eyes. “ _I suppose things change, and there’s only so much a Mirialan Jedi Master can do when she was barely raised in the culture herself. Still, my Jedi Master and I spent several years on Mirial, so that certain things would not be as much of a surprise for me as they have been for you. One of those things was the betrothal ceremony._ ” He settled down, sitting cross-legged in front of her. “ _As you know, the polar tribes of our people are nomadic. We herd the_ rangiferini _and protect them from the_ gulo _, which means we are constantly on the move, racing back and forth between the equators and the poles as our planet slowly tilts toward and away from its star. We are bound in generational family groups too closely related for us to court marital partners from within. Therefore, we have to search in outside tribes for our spouses…and, since the tribes at each pole only tend to meet at the equator at certain brief points in the year, courtship rituals are, perforce, a bit rushed._ ”

Was this _really_ the lecture she was receiving while she was tied up in a den of pirates?

“ _Yes, it is. Stop pouting or this will take longer._ ” Nilam folded his hands into his sleeves prissily. “ _Now, typically courtship is arranged by a family – the elders keep records of who is related to whom, so as not to make incestuous matches. The young folk hoping to be married are introduced to each other and allowed to spend a day in each other’s company. Afterwards, they are taken in by the relatives of their respective sexes and examined for any new Marks of Palurin around the heart, called the Wedding Pendant._ ”

As a visual aide, Nilam traced the shape of a diamond over his breastbone, and Barriss’s breath caught in her throat.

“ _Yes,_ that _is what it is. It means that Palurin and her husband Ulmozz have blessed the relationship as one that would be well-suited for both parties; the courtship is allowed to continue until the circlet has progressed about the shoulders and joined at the back of the neck, on_ both _parties, whereupon the two newlyweds are either allowed to join one of their parental households, or to start their own._ ”

…But her diamond cluster was not over the _heart_ , it was over the _thymus_.

Nilam shook his head. “ _Were you not instructed on any poetry, child? The thymus was once conflated with the heart because large arteries go through that area, and the thymus produces hormones in regards to emotion,_ especially _when the heart is beating quickly._ ”

But…it could have easily happened with _anyone_ she had met before the brothers…

“ _Interesting. Did you contract marriage with anyone aside from Maul?_ ”

Barriss’s eye twitched. She _could_ very well have done so; stars, she’d Claimed _Maul_ without knowing what it meant…

“ _Yes, but_ did _you?_ ”

Ahsoka and Jinx both turned briefly her way, sensing her inner turmoil and silently offering assistance, but she could not, _could not_ , talk to them about this. _Stars_ …Maul was not even Mirialan! He _couldn’t_ be given the marks!

“ _Your gods are not racist, young lady. This has happened before; I married Sinya according to Ryloth’s traditions, and the Pendant formed fairly quickly for me._ ”

She took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes. There _had_ to be some way to annul this…

“ _There are couples who choose not to marry, even with the marks. It’s a blessing from the gods, not a command. Regardless, the marks remain for life, and they are disallowed from marrying anyone else unless or until their former suitor is dead._ ”

She thought she could live with that.

“ _Yes, but do you_ want _to?_ ”

Just then, they were interrupted by a bright light from the door of the hangar, accompanied by bright carnival music. Barriss blinked, and Nilam had disappeared. Obviously the hinted rescue had arrived.

***

“Where are my Jedi? I wouldn’t want them to miss the show!”

“Is he _trying_ to lose his catch?” Merrin growled at Maul’s side. “You wouldn’t catch my sisters bragging about a successful hunt like this; the others would steal their carcasses and take all the credit.”

“It’s an intimidation tactic,” he replied. “He wants to show the performers that he is strong enough to keep three Jedi captive, _and_ he’s tactfully telling the Jedi that if they make one wrong move, he’ll punish the performers instead of them.” It was a more elegant strategy than he would have credited Ohnaka with making, which was, perhaps, the entire point of Ohnaka’s persona. He’d be impressed if he didn’t have skin in the game himself.

“This could be our chance,” he said at last. “Move closer; pretend to be interested in the performance. All we need is one distraction.”

“I LOVE a kiddy act!”

The Togruta girl and Twi’lek boy looked up quickly at that. “Oh _no_ ,” the girl groaned.

Barriss, who was shackled behind the other two and could not comfortably view the performance, frowned. “What? What’s going on?”

“ _Shaddup_ , Jedi! I’m tryin’ to watch!” A Weequay who had painted his armored hide various shades of blue shoved Barriss’s head roughly.

Maul’s hand clenched into a fist, but he swallowed the anger down for now, and let it _simmer_ ; this was a chance to get into position. “You heard the boss,” he said, mildly stepping into the miscreant’s personal space, forcing him to step back a few paces. “He doesn’t want the Jedi to miss this.” He leaned down, and unlocked Barriss’s left hand from the Togruta girl’s right.

The other girl turned, got a glimpse of him out of her peripheral vision, and her brows knit in confusion. Barriss saw him, and her eyes widened, her emotions too muddled for him to guess if she were afraid or angry or relieved. As Maul led her around to face the show, the Twi’lek quickly glanced between both girls, apparently wondering if there was something he was able to do.

However, very little interaction was allowed after that, because suddenly Hondo was sent hurtling through the air, screaming “I’M FLYYYIIIING!” in drunken elation. He landed head-first in a pile of crates; a great many pirates jumped to assist him; now was the time to strike.

Maul ignited his lightsaber and cut Barriss’s shackles. He snatched at her hand so they could run, but she pulled away. “My saber…”

“I’ve got it!” whispered a small voice which sounded like it had a very slight cold. A young Tholothian child – she had her traditional headdress on underneath a purple-and-white acrobatic leotard – ran stealthily up to them, igniting a yellow lightsaber, which she used to sever the handcuffs on the two Jedi before handing it to the Togruta girl. “It’s good to see you again, Knight Offee,” she said politely, handing Barriss her lightsaber. “How did _you_ end up here?”

“It’s…complicated…”

“HEY! Get AWAY from my Jedi, you…”

_That_ was when all hells broke loose. The distinctive snap-hiss of several different lightsabers sounded throughout the cavern, and the Twi’lek boy let loose a powerful Force-push to knock the pirates in their way off of their feet. Someone had the bright idea of loosing the circus animals to add to the havoc; Merrin, evidently, had the even brighter idea of teleporting one of the giant lizards into the actual compound with her magic. The animal, terrified and perplexed, but blaster-proof and thus not in any real danger, stampeded through the ranks of pirates, and no one was watching as the youngling, the Padawans, and Barriss surged into a run, with Maul following after a brief moment of befuddlement, Merrin at his heels.

They took shelter under the circus transport, igniting their lightsabers to defend against the rain of blaster fire. Merrin sent a pirate who got too close up in green flames, and flinched. “I…think I might have turned him inside out.”

“Cool!” said a male human youngling who blocked blaster bolts right beside her.

“But I didn’t _mean_ to…”

“Do it again!”

“ _Petro_ , that’s _not_ the Jedi way!”

“Does she look like a Jedi to you?”

As the argument continued, the transport above their heads pulled away, leaving them without cover. The Togruta girl growled in frustration, and pointed to an armored landspeeder several meters from them. “Over there!”

Maul would awake from a troubled sleep wondering just _why_ it felt so _natural_ to position himself between the younglings and the pirates, covering their escape shoulder-to-shoulder with Barriss and the Padawans. However, in the moment, there was no time to question; the younglings got into the speeder, and the older Force users jumped on top of its roof to continue blocking blasterfire. They set off at the greatest speed they could manage, and they got a fairly good head start, as the remaining pirates were still milling about in absence of any real plan.

As soon as they were out of sight of the compound, the Togruta girl _whirled_ on Barriss. “Explanation. Now.”

***

“ _Excuse_ me? Why don’t _you_ explain what’s going on _here_ , first? You’ve got almost an entire clan of younglings in the middle of a gang war!”

Almost? Jinx counted heads, found that there were only five younglings, and nearly had a heart attack.

“I _ordered_ them to stay put and wait for help to come, but they, obviously, disobeyed me. You do _not_ get to hold me responsible for that!”

The young Twi’lek put his head into the landspeeder. “Ganodi’s with the ship, right?”

In the pilot’s seats, Petro and Zatt looked at each other, and frantically got out their comms. “That’s _right_ , she’s the getaway driver…hold on!”

“Obviously they’re taking a page from _your_ playbook then, _Snips_!”

The blue stripes of Ahsoka’s montrals went nearly white with fury. “Well _obviously_ so are _you!_ Is _that_ _kriffing Savage Opress?_ ”

Jinx shot a side glance at the Zabrak male with the scarlet blade and the pitch-black tattoos covering every exposed inch of his crimson body as he belatedly covered the ears of the gray-skinned girl in burgundy veils.

“Brother, what does _kriffing_ mean?”

The Zabrak sighed. “Never you mind…”

“Don’t _swear_ in front of _children_ , Ahsoka!”

“Don’t bring _karking Sith Lords_ in to _slaughter_ the children, _Barriss!_ ”

“He hasn’t _done_ anything to them!”

“Yeah, how long is _that_ supposed to last?”

Jinx glanced between each girl as their yelling began to get progressively louder. Obviously, someone had to be the adult in this situation, and it wasn’t going to be either of _them_. Nor was it going to be the Zabrak, who seemed almost as floored by the whole thing as Jinx did. And the younglings, all of them, were growing more and more panicked with each second. It was time to make an executive decision.

“All RIGHT! ENOUGH!”

…Oh, he _hated_ being the center of attention. He _hated_ being the one who came up with a plan. Most of his plans on Wasskah had resulted in the death of at least one of his friends, and this…this cut too close to Wasskah for comfort. But he was the only one who could step up at the moment, so he mentally slapped himself, and stepped up.

“We need to get safely away before we say anything more. Kids, where’s the _Crucible_?”

“It’s on its way,” Zatt said, poking his head up from the hatch.

“Good. Now. Get in there, and have Petro _stand_ on the accelerator, while you do the steering. We need to keep going as fast as we can for as long as we can.”

“Okay.”

“Katooni, Byph, Gungi…and, uh, what’s your name?”

“Merrin.”

“Merrin. All of you get inside, now. You’ll be more protected in there.”

“But…”

“Do as he says,” Ahsoka said, letting out a shuddering breath.

Gungi keened quietly.

Jinx didn’t know Shyriiwook very well, but Ahsoka seemed to understand. “That would be nice…we _are_ very thirsty.”

When the adults…well, the four people present who were not preteens…were left alone on the top of the rapidly accelerating speeder, the Zabrak cleared his throat awkwardly. “I am not.”

The other three blinked at him. “What?”

“Savage Opress; you asked if I am he. I am not. I’m his brother, Maul.”

Ahsoka’s face rapidly shifted from shock, to horror, to stunned acceptance. “Of _course_ you are.”

Jinx had the _distinct_ feeling that this interaction would not be getting any less awkward. “Can someone please explain to me what that means so that I might have the appropriate response?”

Barriss winced. “He’s the Sith Lord Master Kenobi cut in half twelve years ago.”

“… _Kark my life sideways with a rubber chainsaw._ ”

Maul smirked mirthlessly. “I think that about sums it up, yes?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise I am not making these rules up as I go along. There will be more details on Mirialan family life that I could not describe here, including the customs of equatorial (purple) Mirialans and a plot summary of Aann of the Greenhouse. Everything just happens so fast, my goodness...


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Padawans and younglings are officially in on the madness now, shipping is put temporarily aside so that everyone can recover from this ordeal, Ahsoka is NOT having a good day and intends to make it everyone else's problem, and Obi-Wan has a bona fide conniption that allows him to briefly steal Anakin's Vader music.

It was said that the lineage of Yoda through his most recent apprentice, Yan Dooku, tended to be more reckless and foolhardy than most. Ahsoka had grown enough that she no longer bristled at that particular bit of criticism, but she still preferred to think that she, Anakin, and Master Obi-Wan had their priorities straight, because there was not much time in battle for thought to dwell on anything else but the most immediate problem.

Therefore, once she recovered from the initial wave of disbelief at finding her best friend in the company of a Sith Lord who _ought_ to have died more than a decade ago, Ahsoka let the conundrum pass for the moment. The immediate problem was _not_ Barriss or Maul. The immediate problem was getting off Florrum.

And the immediate obstacles to solving that problem were the several speederfuls of pirates who had caught up to them.

And getting onto the _Crucible_ while in a live firefight.

When the _Crucible_ was being piloted by a ten-year-old Rodian.

As a wise one once said… _fierfek_.

Well, at the very least, their ferocious new temporary ally was not at _all_ afraid of returning fire…so to speak. When a blaster bolt had ricocheted perilously close to Barriss’s head just as she was having her turn drinking from the canteen, Maul had sent the speeder of the pirate responsible hurtling into the speeder behind it. Jinx gave Ahsoka precisely _one_ wide-eyed expression of helplessness, before turning off his blue lightsaber and following suit, plucking the remaining pirates out of their seats and dropping them to tumble into Florrum’s yellow dust.

“You’re not going to win anything by sparing their useless lives, boy.”

“And you’re wasting your breath being dramatic. They’re out of range now.”

Barriss swiped a blaster bolt out of the air before it could hit Jinx’s right lekku. “Less talking, more blocking. Are we there yet?”

Ahsoka tuned out the fight, listening to the distinctive whistle of the _Crucible_ ’s ancient engine as it gradually grew nearer. “Almost.” She put her head into the tank’s hatch. “All right, everybody out! You guys are getting on first.”

“But the accelerator…”

“Lock it in place with something! We need to go!”

The _Crucible_ pulled up beside them, smoking and squealing in ways that would have set even Anakin’s teeth on edge. The old gangplank was lowered, and Ganodi and Professor Huyang stood upon it, the young Rodian reaching out with her hands and the Force towards her friends.

And that was when the tank suddenly decelerated; whatever had been placed on the accelerator to keep it going had been displaced. Ahsoka braced, grabbing poor Byph as he lost his footing and nearly fell. The _Crucible_ , already overtaxed in this high-speed chase for which it had not been built even in its time, careened away from them; without a good pilot at its controls, it lurched and then plummeted toward the ground. Ganodi and the Professor only had enough time to leap out of the ship before it crashed…right into a ravine which Ahsoka only just now noticed they had been approaching.

Petro disappeared into the hatch, and the brakes screeched two moments later. They came to a perilous, halting stop, mere meters from meeting the _Crucible_ ’s ultimate fate. The pirate speeders surrounded them.

“Hands up, Jedi!”

Ahsoka knew when she was beaten. She turned off her sabers, holstered them, and put her hands above her head. Almost everyone else did the same…except, of _course_ …

“That means _you_ , Zabrak!”

The Sith held his hands primly behind his back, though he did spare the speaker one _ferocious_ glare. “I am _not_ a Jedi.”

“Maul,” Barriss hissed.

“Put. Your hands. UP!”

He lifted his eyebrows, and then tilted one ear to the sky. “Like…so?” He flicked his wrists, and flipped the three speeders over, toppling everyone still in them to the ground.

The pirates swore and tried to right themselves, but before they could get reorganized, a heavy weight descended toward them. A heavy, beat-up freighter landed thunderously between the pirates and the commandeered tank, its large cargo bay doors opened wide.

“Everybody inside!”

“Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding,” Ahsoka breathed, even as she fished Petro out of the pilot seat.

“Have you got any better ideas?” Jinx yelled, before he leaped off the tank to retrieve Ganodi and the Professor.

…He was right. There was no choice, here. It was either this, or let the pirates capture them again, them and all the younglings.

Ahsoka ran up behind the children, helping Barriss toss Zatt, Katooni, and Petro up into Byph, Merrin, and Gungi’s waiting hands. Then, she jumped into the cargo bay, and caught Barriss’s hand to lift her up; Maul hauled the Professor inside a second later, Barriss caught Ganodi when Jinx wildly tossed her, and Ahsoka barely managed to drag Jinx himself aboard before they were taking off, the blaster bolts still flying around their heads as the doors _finally_ closed. Then, for a moment, all was still as everyone fought to catch their breath.

“Best. Training mission. _Ever_ ,” Gungi growled at long last.

“What he said,” Byph returned in his own language.

When she got home, Ahsoka was going to buy Obi-Wan a good _keg_ of his favorite tea. If _this_ was the sort of headache he had to deal with all the time around her and Anakin, the man was a living, breathing saint and deserved three dozen vacations at the least.

***

“Um…brother?” Savage murmured as they left Florrum’s atmosphere.

Maul rolled his eyes, and began to input calculations for a hyperspace jump. “I know, I _know_. Just…get us out of here for now.”

Savage sighed. “No, I don’t mean _them_.” He took Maul’s hand, and pointed out of the bridge window. “ _That_.”

His younger brother’s jaw dropped as he saw what Savage had noticed on the sensors…that being the entire flotilla of Confederate ships which had dropped out of hyperspace in front of them scant seconds before. “… _What_?”

“That’s Grievous’s flagship,” Savage said…oh, and _that_ was a person he’d hoped never to cross again, but here they were. “What did you _do_?”

“I…I don’t know…”

“It wasn’t him,” intoned one of Maul’s new _acquisitions_ , a Togruta, who entered the control room, staring at the ships outside with an expert gaze. “The Ohnaka Gang has been at odds with Dooku for some time now. Obviously Dooku has sent his main enforcer to deal with them.”

“Oh,” Savage grunted, swiveling around to the controls in order to direct their ship out of the flotilla’s path. “Well, never let it be said that I stood in the way of General Grievous…”

“You’re just going to _run away_?” the girl demanded.

Savage was pretty sure he and Maul made the same bewildered gesture before they turned back toward her. “Was Ohnaka not about to _sell you_ to Dooku?” Maul asked. “ _Why_ in the name of every star are you _defending_ that mongrel?”

There was an obstinate light in the young Jedi’s eyes. “That _mongrel_ is the only thing in this sector that doesn’t belong to the Confederacy. His raids have disrupted their supply chain far more than we’ve been able to manage. Like it or not, he’s necessary if _anyone_ is going to depose Dooku.”

She was careful to avoid mentioning the Jedi or the Republic, and addressed her argument chiefly to Savage in a tacit appeal to his presumed desire for revenge against his erstwhile Master. “That is an excellent point,” Savage replied, holding up a hand when Maul, confused, began to lose his temper. “And, if I was in any other situation aside from this, I’d give my left hand for the chance to ruin Count Dooku’s day. _But_ , I’m not the only factor here. We are getting away, end of discussion.”

“But…”

“You heard him,” Maul murmured. “Go back to your younglings, _Padawan_.”

She sneered, and stamped all the way back to the cargo bay where her fellows were waiting.

Savage grinned. “Man, you’re better at adopting strays than _I_ am.”

“… _Shut up_.”

“…We’re going back to Yavin? But the pirates _found_ us there…”

“The pirates are about to be far too busy to care about where we’ve gone. It’s as good a hiding place as any.”

***

…There was a Hutt-sized bedframe welded to the cargo bay floor, with a fully-attached mattress to boot. Barriss was currently occupied with gathering a great many blankets, comforters, and pillows, which had been scattered about the room with all of the recent activity; the younglings shrugged, and set about helping her with the task.

Ahsoka watched quietly, feeling as if her life was spinning out of control and she couldn’t even manage to decide how to react to it. _Florrum is being invaded by Separatists_ , she signed, dully.

_Good._

She glared at Jinx. _Obi-Wan did not spend the last two years cultivating a rapport with Hondo Ohnaka for us to lose him as an ally. This could turn the war against us._

_Master Kenobi is still in the neighborhood. If he wants to keep Ohnaka there, he has the numbers to liberate him,_ if _the wily old rodder does not liberate himself first._ The Twi’lek eyed her shrewdly. _But that isn’t the real reason you’re angry, is it?_

She huffed. _I’m not angry, I’m_ frustrated _. We just wasted two years of progress…_

_No,_ Ohnaka _wasted two years of progress when he decided to throw friendly relations with the Jedi out the window to grab at some shiny crystals._ We _made a choice to survive, and we did._

_For how long? Force save us…you weren’t here to see the results of Savage Opress’s last_ rampage _, but I was. He killed one of my crèchemates, his Master, and their entire division of clones…_

_Yes, I_ know _. I watched the HUD footage to get a feel for what I was getting into._ At Ahsoka’s horrified face, Jinx averted his eyes and shrugged. _I’ll admit it didn’t really put my mind in a good place. But, that battle was months ago, and to be honest, he didn’t look_ well _in those holos. He was too still, too robotic, and his pupils were…I dunno, wonky, too much dilated for the amount of daylight he was in. I think it’s safe to say he was not his own person then, under some kind of mind control. And…well, look at him now._

The giant Zabrak had lumbered into the room, and gingerly bent to pick up a soft blanket patterned with cartoon tookas. Zatt crept up to him, gesturing to the blanket.

“I can take that over to the bed if you want.”

Opress peered down, barely able to see the young Nautolan over the expanse of his own massive chest. “Uh…no, I…” he stammered, gently lifting the blanket out of the youngling’s grasp. “This is, uh…mine.”

Zatt stared solemnly back at him, and reached up to pat his elbow. “That’s valid, my dude.”

Jinx turned back to Ahsoka, raising his eyebrows meaningfully. _See what I mean?_

She frowned. _Barriss obviously got to him._

_And? She’s_ good _at mind healing, overworked or not. And, they don’t seem to have any love for Dooku…_

_Jinx. Please tell me you aren’t_ seriously _suggesting what I think you are?_

He regarded her frankly. _We have no choice but to watch and wait, right now. If we can turn this into an alliance of some sort…you_ have _to admit, it would give the Order options we didn’t have before._

_You_ are…!

_Ahsoka, tell me straight. If these two had shown up on Wasskah instead of Chewbacca, what would you have done?_

She closed her eyes, and set her jaw. _I would have united with them against a common enemy._

_Even if the rest of us thought you were crazy._

She sighed. _I don’t think you’re crazy._

_Of course you don’t, because_ you’re _crazy. I’m just trying to keep up, here._ Jinx smiled. _We can always try to run away once we land. The kids’ commlinks still work, and Master Kenobi knows we’re out here somewhere. And we’re pretty good at this surviving thing, you and I._

_I hope we can be good_ enough…

***

Hondo Ohnaka sat enthroned amongst the ruins of his own hideout, observing quietly as Obi-Wan and Cody approached him. He was stone-cold sober, his chin high and his back straight; that alone told the Jedi that he was greatly affected by the losses he had suffered.

“Well, General,” the Weequay said with a smile. “I suppose now is as good a time as any to discuss my fee.”

“ _Your_ fee?” Obi-Wan replied, holding back a smirk as Cody deliberately adjusted the gigantic repeater he was carrying on one hip. “Beg pardon, Captain, but as it was _my_ army that liberated _your_ assets, I believe _I_ am the one getting paid in this scenario.”

“Ah, but you only helped me because my business is useful to your war efforts…don’t lie, I’ve been around to know how the game works.” Hondo sniffed theatrically, slouching. “Our ledger is settled on that account, but there is still the matter of the effort I spent protecting your young Jedi-in-training.”

Obi-Wan kept smiling, even as the gears of his brain came grinding to a halt. “To which young Jedi do you refer?”

“Why, your teenage grand-apprentice, of course! I rescued her from one of my more _irritating_ competitors who were going to sell her to _Dooku_ of all people, along with some Twi’lek kid she was with…Syndulla, I think his name was. And then, of course, I found another girl named Offee; two of my men (whom I’ve now promoted to captains) snatched her out of the jaws of some monster and brought her back here!”

“…Do tell,” Obi-Wan said, forcing his body language to exude calmness instead of his steadily rising hackles. “Well, where are they? They’ve all been sorely missed back on Coruscant.”

Hondo laughed nervously. “That’s the thing…they, uh, went their separate way after the attack on my compound.”

Obi-Wan’s eyelid twitched, and he heard Cody shift the intimidating weapon to hold it in his arms like a baby, sliding one step closer to combat mode. “So what you’re telling me is that you _had_ our young Jedi, and not only did you _not_ immediately inform us that they were with you…”

“You’re a hard man to contact, Kenobi, have a heart!”

“…you _also_ extended the same hospitality to them that General Skywalker, Count Dooku, and I received upon _our_ first stay with your organization.”

“Absolutely _not_. I’m _smart enough_ not to make the same mistake _twice_ , my friend, give me just a _little_ credit!”

“Not only that, but you _had them in your possession_ , and then you _lost them?_ And you expect me to _pay_ you for that?”

“There were _extenuating_ circumstances, and I can assist you in finding them!”

“Oh really? Tell me, where do you think they went?”

The pirate captain cringed just a little, trying to play it off as a shrug. “They, uh, neglected to inform me of that.”

“Meaning they _escaped_.”

“No, meaning they were _stolen_ , by two new recruits who took _advantage_ of my generosity and my _excellent_ benefit plan.”

Obi-Wan was beginning to seriously regret the choice to leave Anakin on Coruscant and Lissarkh on the ship; this man needed to be strangled or eaten, one of the two, possibly both at the same time, and he couldn’t manage to stomach doing either himself. “Can you at least _describe_ the reprobates in question?”

“Uh…well, they were both Dathomirian. One was this little girl, maybe twelve years old, _adorable_ , and she could talk to the disturbingly friendly ghosts we had staying in our diner. The other was her father, a man kind of yay-high, red skin, yellow eyes…”

He was going to have a stroke. He was certain of it. “You allowed _Darth Maul_ to walk away with my _teenage apprentice!?_ ”

“No, I allowed _Malign_ , touchingly protective single father of Ilyana, to walk away with your teenage apprentice. I’m not an _idiot_ , Kenobi – that Maul fellow was in pieces and had a, uh, _distinguished_ Core accent like you do. This guy was whole and spoke like a normal person…I _mean_ , normal for _out here_ , not…”

“Did this ‘single father’ have a red lightsaber?”

“How in the galaxy would I know? I was fashionably indisposed when the fighting broke out!” Hondo was shrinking into his chair. “Are you… _angry_? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you…”

Obi-Wan waved him silent and turned his back on him, so that only Cody could see the several _long_ breaths he took through his nostrils and let out through his mouth in order to avoid doing something regrettable in a fit of temper.

“Easy, sir,” the Commander murmured.

“I should have let Grievous kill him.”

“And let that asthmatic cyborg have _all_ the fun? Sir, I thought you loved me.”

Obi-Wan grinned, and turned back to Hondo with what he assumed was an expression of tactfully withheld bloodthirst. “Captain, your fee is settled. For your effort in… _protecting_ our future Jedi, I will order my colleague here _not_ to gun you down like the… _unrepentant gentleman of fortune_ you are.”

Hondo glanced in terror at Cody, who sighed disappointedly and shifted the repeater onto his hip again.

“You will _also_ refrain from interfering in any Jedi effort again, for the duration of the war…my fellow generals are going to be less _forgiving_ than I am.”

“Of course, Kenobi, anything you say.” The pirate captain nodded shakily. “All of my resources are at your disposal as well.”

“ _What_ resources?”

“…Want a drink?”

“I have my own, personal, _very_ well-stocked bar on my own, personal, _not_ currently on-fire or discombobulated _ship_. Keep your drugged and watered-down spotchka. I bid you good day.” And with that, Obi-Wan turned on his heel and marched out of the compound.

“…You know, sir, we could _always_ bombard them from orbit,” Cody said at his shoulder.

“I’m in a mood to admit I’d like that, Commander, but I’d have a devil of a time justifying such a waste of tibanna gas to the Council.” Obi-Wan sighed. “He’s going to be _scrambling_ to regain my good graces now. That, at least, will ensure his good behavior for…a standard month, perhaps. He might even find the young ones _for_ us.”

“ _Then_ we can shoot him.”

“ _Indeed_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come on, General, I just want ONE good shot at the blighter's eye, just ONE.
> 
> Commander, you're holding a repeater. It's never going to be just one.
> 
> One VOLLEY, then. You have to admit he deserves it...


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barriss takes inventory and remembers someone she forgot, Feral is definitely Maul's Nice Twin and too patient for his own good, Savage Opress is a Good Hugger, and Maul watches friendly relationships from the sideline again and accidentally makes one of his own.

Throughout Barriss’s life, there had been a few instances in which she’d had to step back, breathe, and take a mental inventory of her situation before proceeding. One of those times had been her haircutting to become a Padawan learner. One had been her Knighting. Geonosis occupied two such slots. And Umbara probably _should_ have been another, or else she would not be _here_ , trying her best to look busy while she compartmentalized just about everything going on.

She was in a ship with six younglings and an adolescent Witch of Dathomir, all near the same age emotionally speaking. They were the least complicated part of the group, ironically enough; currently they were clustered on the Hutt-sized mattress, sipping at instant hot cocoa scrounged from their supplies and chatting animatedly about coming-of-age rituals and cool tattoos. The ancient droid, Professor Huyang lay in their midst, while Ganodi and Zatt attempted to build him a pair of arms from some foraged machine pieces which had probably belonged to the discarded set of spider-legs which had not seen any use for some time.

Watching them closely were two Padawans. One of these was a former patient of hers who still suffered from PTSD after being put on an island and forced to survive nearly two years of being hunted for sport; he was, tellingly, seated on the highest box he could find, surveying the others from a safe distance while he took some time to process yet _another_ trauma he’d needed to endure. The other, a frighteningly competent soldier at the tender age of seventeen, was in her element in the midst of the younglings; her friendly demeanor masked the canny analysis in the tilt of her head, and the subtle signs of overstimulation in her predator’s eyes.

Then, of course, there was a giant Nightbrother, who, after a few moments of hesitance, was tentatively making inroads of friendship with the recent additions. The hot cocoa had been his idea. He’d boiled the water in front of Ahsoka, and took a generous sip of it before even dishing it out to the rest of them. He’d made reference to having experience in dealing with children, and Barriss could readily believe it in his mannerisms.

Finally, last but certainly not least, was the resident Sith Lord, pilot, and Barriss’s accidental husband. And he had seen fit not to be visible, for reasons at which she could only guess.

Oh, and there was Feral.

…Stars, _Feral!_

Barriss slipped into the hallway, and glanced timidly into the medbay. Feral was alone. Good, she could work with that.

“How are you doing?” she asked, closing the medbay door behind her.

“Oh, you know. Still paralyzed,” he replied with good humor. “How about you?”

His light tone smacked Barriss right in her bruised conscience. “I’m the sorriest excuse for a doctor there is.”

“Hey, if anyone is going to blame you for running away from an uncomfortable romantic situation, it is _not_ going to be me.”

She stared. “You _know_ about that?”

The ill Nightbrother blinked wryly. “Uh, yeah.”

“…Does _Savage_ know?”

“He knows _something_ is going on, but hasn’t asked anything. Merrin seems to be under the impression you were just kidnapped in the middle of playing a game.” Feral sighed. “And Maul blames himself more than anything. The two of you were made for each other in that way.”

“We were nothing of the sort.” Barriss managed to catch her hand before she could trace tellingly at her collarbone.

Feral didn’t seem convinced. “So why did you…?”

“You said you were bored,” she said over him, wanting the matter finished. “Would you like to come out and spend time with everyone else?”

“…Sure,” he drawled, letting her win for now. “Are you going to carry me out there?”

“Would you like to walk there yourself?”

“I’m sure he would,” said a deep voice behind her, “but that’s not going to happen tonight. Tell me honestly, Barriss: when was the last time you ate?”

She turned around to face Savage, who had his hands on his hips and one inquiring eyebrow raised. For a second, she felt five years old again; she had to fight not to grab her elbow or kick the ground, and she couldn’t manage to meet his eyes. “Breakfast on the day I was captured.”

“That’s what I thought.” After a moment, his hands descended on her shoulders. “I’m glad you’re safe, Barriss.”

Somehow, a few scant weeks after this man had held a lightsaber to her throat for stowing away on his stolen ship, talkin to him him was the first time in which she’d actually _felt_ safe for…a _long_ while. Slowly, she drew closer, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her cheek to his chest. “I’m glad to be back, Savage,” she said, savoring the weight of his hand against the back of her head.

“…Come on,” he said, his voice thick. “Let’s get you both some cocoa at least.”

***

The orange one was ever watchful. Even through the walls between the bridge and the cargo bay, Maul could sense her attention focused upon him. He had the feeling that if he were to do anything in the vicinity of the younglings, she’d be down his throat in the blink of an eye. Therefore he stayed away…for the time being.

Movement in the hallway caught his attention, however. He crept to the cockpit door, and watched silently as Barriss exited the medbay, followed by Savage with Feral in his arms. Maul’s presence went unremarked, though not unnoticed; Barriss avoided meeting his eyes, but she _did_ see him, and Feral seemed to be trying to tell him something using only the lifting of his brows. He followed them as they entered the cargo bay, utilizing their arrival as a distraction to hide in their small collection of supply crates without the orange one watching him.

“Got room for two more?” Savage inquired politely. “Our medbay cot is about as comfortable as a slab of granite.”

“I like granite!” grunted the Ithorian child in his own language. “It’s nice to sun myself on!”

“Who’s this?” the Togruta asked.

“This is Feral,” Barriss replied quickly. “He was hurt, and I haven’t been able to heal him fully yet. He could do with some company, though.”

A glimmer of uncertainty passed through the other girl’s eyes, and Maul had to smirk. It was a beautiful strategy, vulnerability made strength; it showed that, despite whatever else the brothers had done, they _were_ capable of protecting their own and handling their weak gently. It would offset whatever assumptions the Jedi had made of them as their enemies. It would also lull them into a sense of security, and make them more open to manipulation.

Well, it would do that with _most_ of them. The Togruta’s eyes narrowed. “Who hurt him?” she asked.

“It was a Nightsister ritual,” Merrin spoke up before Savage could say anything. “An experiment, really. My older Sisters wanted to test a spell to see if a Brother could be made compliant enough that he would not fight back.” When that earned her a horrified stare from everyone around her, Merrin cringed. “I do not praise what happened, only state it.”

The younglings were already shifting to allow Feral some space. “That’s _awful_ ,” the little Tholothian with a head cold said.

“Why hasn’t anyone done something about it?” the human asked.

“There’s nothing more to do,” Feral said. “All of the Sisters except Merrin and Asajj Ventress were killed by the one called Grievous. We are all that is left, outside of Dathomir.”

“I thought all the bad guys were working together,” the Rodian asked. “Why would they do that to their own friends?”

The Togruta shook her head. “Not everyone who disagrees with us is _bad_ , youngling,” she said solemnly, gracefully side-stepping the irony of that statement in present company. “And not everyone who disagrees with the Republic necessarily agrees with each other. The war has ended many alliances.”

“All the same,” the human boy puffed out his chest, glancing at Merrin in a manner he probably thought was subtle. “I’m going to defeat Grievous and punish him for all of the people he’s killed. And this is the sword I’m going to fight him with!”

Merrin smiled indulgently at the ignited blue saber, ignoring the shaken head and rolled eyes of the other younglings. “Grievous uses four of those.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything! Ahsoka had one when she fought him!”

“And _lost_ ,” the Togruta girl said.

“And Master Kenobi only uses one blade, and he’s defeated Grievous dozens of times!”

Maul twitched.

Barriss’s eyes widened. “Let’s…not mention that particular Jedi in present company, all right Petro?”

***

The talk wore on through hours of hyperspace. Jinx was reminded of many nights spent with his youngling clan, back in the days when they could cure homesickness for the crèche by holding sleepovers in the common area. It was joyful for the kids, who hadn’t any idea just how badly they’d jumped from the frying pan into the fire; it even seemed to comfort the Dathomirians, who seemed to be used to such gatherings themselves. Ahsoka and Barriss were tense, but they were good with children, and they could set aside their anxiety for the younglings’ sake.

In many ways, Jinx still felt like a youngling; in many ways, he was keenly aware that he was not one any longer. He had been only a year or so older than these little ones when he’d had his innocence ripped away from him, and it had left scars that occasionally ached. When he saw Kalifa’s face instead of Katooni’s, he’d decided to step away before he could say anything that would hurt one of them. And now, he found himself on the outside looking in…again. And that was okay. He would rejoin them when he was ready.

“I’ve already beaten Former Master Dooku’s time record in push-feather! One of the members of the Council _has_ to see I’d make a good warrior!”

The Dathomiri girl blinked. “What is this…push-feather?”

Petro _beamed_ , and Katooni put her head dejectedly in her hand; this was obviously going to take a while.

A soft snort rang out from the dark presence hiding at the foot of Jinx’s crate. “The boy is not going to win a Nightsister by bragging about such infantile accomplishments.”

“He’s not out to win _her_. He’s out to win Katooni by making her jealous.”

There were a few moments in which the lively discussion at the bed was the only thing breaking the silence before the Sith Lord replied. “How long have you been up there?”

Jinx smirked. “I watched you sneak over here.”

“…I didn’t sense you at _all_.”

“I’m good at hiding, just as you are.”

“…I am not _hiding_. I am _reconnoitering_. _You’re_ hiding.”

“Yes, I’m in plain sight of everyone in both of our groups, and I just outed myself to the only one who didn’t notice me at first. And _I’m_ the one hiding.”

There was a grumble. “Is it a Jedi thing, or Twi’lek thing, to be so skilled in double-speak? You just paraphrased someone I doubt you’ve ever met.”

“Well, we can hold two different conversations at once. Big brains and extra limbs,” Jinx preened, swinging his lekku to illustrate the point.

“ _Whelp_ ,” the voice hissed, the presence behind it sliding away.

“I’ve been called worse…you don’t have to go. I won’t tell them you’re here.”

“…Why?”

“I know what it’s like to need space. Don’t try to stab me or anything, and I won’t do anything to you.”

The Sith Lord paused, and leaned back against the crate, watching the conversation unfold for a few moments. “…How is awakening someone’s envy supposed to win them?” he asked after a moment.

“I think it’s supposed to encourage the target to realize how much they actually like the perpetrator, when the target is too stubborn to admit such a thing, even to themselves.”

“…Does it work?”

“Hells no. I tried the same thing myself when I was their age. It got me slapped by my crush and the person I pretended to like told on me for having attachments.”

“Your _crush_?”

“My beloved, my muse, the one whom I wanted as my sweetheart,” he translated; old people were so behind-the-times on their slang. “It was just as well. The one I pretended to like actually became the best friend I ever had,” and teased him relentlessly about the incident in their correspondence. Stars, but Jinx missed O-Mer like he might a severed limb.

“And your…crush?”

Jinx closed his eyes, braced himself, and ripped the bandage off quickly. “Dead before turning fourteen, and mounted like an animal on a Trandoshan’s wall.”

The Sith Lord considered that information. “I suppose you followed the Jedi way, and did not seek your revenge.”

“It’s kinda hard to avenge oneself on a dead lizard. We were bailed out by Wookiees; one of them threw the guy responsible off of a moving air-fortress for doing the same thing to her husband. I got some closure, though; we were able to give our fellow Jedi a suitable burial, and I became apprenticed to the one Knight who wants to stop the hunts as much as I do.”

“Closure is…fine, I suppose. But does the hurt ever go away?”

“No. I just became strong enough to carry it.”

There was a confused snicker. “Oh, that was excellently coded, _nicely_ done. I don’t suppose you’re in the market for a Master?”

“Nah, but thanks for asking,” Jinx replied with a grin. “And don’t play coy with me. _You_ want a friend, not an apprentice.”

There was a pensive quiet from the foot of the crate for a few moments. “Others…have said the same, in as many words. But I am beyond such considerations by now.”

“Funny. You weren’t beyond trying to console me in the only way you know how.” When that statement was met, once again, with hushed thought, Jinx shifted his sitting position casually. “I believe you’d make a better friend than you’re willing to give yourself credit for.”

“…Once again. Is this a Twi’lek thing, or a Jedi thing?”

“It can be both, I think.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eldra Kaitis has her revenge upon Maul by forcing him to interact with Twi'lek Jedi. It is a headcanon that lives rent-free in my head, and now it shall live in yours.


End file.
